In Bangladesh and Vietnam, significant heavy metal contamination of groundwater has been observed since around the 1990s. Arsenic contamination is particularly serious in Bangladesh and Vietnam, where arsenic has been detected in well water used by villagers for domestic use, and many serious health hazards have been confirmed after years of quoting this arsenic-contaminated water.The factors of arsenic contamination of groundwater include the discharge of arsenic from groundwater in the Himalayas in Bangladesh and the imbalance of stratigraphic groundwater levels in the Red River Delta of Vietnam at different geological ages, which are considered to be naturally occurring arsenic pollution.
On the other hand, in developing countries such as Bangladesh and Vietnam, urban development and industrial park development are progressing, and heavy metal pollution of the water environment is also progressing due to the discharge of polluted wastewater into rivers and the lack of treatment facilities for polluted wastewater.
Although there are many reports on the health hazards of persistent human exposure to heavy metal contamination, the behavior of heavy metal-contaminated water as surface water and its effects on crops when used as irrigation water are still largely unexplored.
In this study, we are investigating the geographical and topographical accumulation characteristics of heavy metal contaminated water flowing as surface water and the accumulation characteristics within crops when heavy metal contaminated water is used as irrigation water.
Heavy metal pollution map of the Red River Delta, Vietnam
