Groundwater Quality: Cambodia
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Groundwater Quality: Cambodia This is one of a series of information sheets prepared for each country in which WaterAid works. The sheets aim to identify inorganic constituents of significant risk to health that may occur in groundwater in the country in question. The purpose of the sheets is to provide guidance to WaterAid Country Office staff on targeting efforts on water-quality testing and to encourage further thinking in the organisation on water- quality issues. Background The Mekong River rises on the Tibetan Plateau and flows through four countries upstream of Cambodia The Kingdom of Cambodia (estimated population before extending over some 500 km within the 15.8 million) is located in south-east Asia, bordered country. Below Phnom Penh, the river divides into to the west, north, east and south by Thailand, Laos the Lower Mekong River and the Bassac River and Vietnam, and by the Gulf of Thailand to the which each flow via Vietnam and discharge to the south-west (Figure 1a). Cambodia has an area of South China Sea. At Phnom Penh, the Mekong 181,000 square kilometres and is divided into 24 River is connected to the Tonle Sap via the Tonle provinces (Figure 1b). The capital is Phnom Penh Sap River (Figure 1a). The volume of the Tonle Sap (population 1 million). Lake varies significantly annually in response to Topography can be divided into three main terrains: rainfall and flooding from the Mekong River; the mountains and plateaux of the border areas connecting Tonle Sap River reverses flow direction (Cardamom Mountains in the west, Dangrek accordingly. During the peak monsoon season, the Mountains in the north, the Annamite Mountains in swelling Mekong River floods and flows northwards the north-east, the Eastern Plateau, and Elephant along the Tonle Sap River. The flow reverses after Mountains in the south); the central plains which the rainy season as the swollen Tonle Sap Lake cover about 75% of the land area; and the south- drains. The Tonle Sap is the largest freshwater lake western coastal plain, occupied by mangrove marsh, in South East Asia. sandy beaches and headlands (Figure 1a). Highest Climate is tropical and dominated by the alternating elevation is at Phnom Aural (1,810 m) in the eastern south-west and north-east monsoon air masses, Cardamom Mountains. The central plains have an May-November being associated with the south- elevation of around 10–30 m above sea level. These west monsoon which contributes 90% of the annual are drained by the Mekong River and the Tonle Sap- rainfall. The remaining months are associated with Bassac River systems. The central plains represent the north-east monsoon, which brings dry and the most fertile and populous land of Cambodia. cooler air. Annual rainfall varies from some a) b) Tonle Sap Lake Cardamom Mts Elephant Mts Figure 1. a) Topographic map; b) Province map of Cambodia (Creative Commons Licence). 1 2,700 mm in the coastal area, through 2,400 mm in conglomerate, shale, evaporite and coal. The the Cardamom and Elephant Mountains, to around Triassic strata at the base of the sequence are folded 600–800 mm in the Tonle Sap. Average annual and overlain unconformably by flat-lying, unfolded nationally is some 1000–1500 mm. Average monthly Jurassic and Cretaceous sediments. Some volcanic temperatures vary from 22°C in January to 36°C in units of approximate Jurassic age occur in the April (ADB, 2014). Average annual temperature is Khorat Basin sequence. Granitic rocks also intrude around 25°C. into some of the Khorat sediments with an inferred Triassic or Jurassic age (McDougall, 2009). Land cover is dominated by forestry (58%) and Mesozoic rocks occupy a large part of the peripheral agriculture (22%). Agriculture is the most significant areas of the country (Figure 2). Offshore islands are economic activity. This is dominated by rice, but also composed of Jurassic and Cretaceous includes corn and cassava; as well as cattle and sandstones. poultry. Of additional importance are textiles, construction, garments and tourism. 80% of the Cenozoic flood basalts occur in parts of eastern population lives in rural areas and 70% of Cambodia. livelihoods rely on agriculture. The industrial sector is nascent but increasing in significance. Much of Cambodia’s central plain is covered by alluvial deposits of Quaternary to Recent age, Although Cambodia has one of the most rapid rates thickest in the Tonle Sap Lake area and Mekong of economic growth in Asia, poverty remains a Delta. The central plains consist mainly of sands, major problem. Environmental issues include recent silts and clays of Plio-Pleistocene, Pleistocene and deforestation and pollution from urban, industrial Holocene age. In the Mekong floodplain, Holocene and agricultural sources. Flooding is an annual deposits are of the order of 50 m thick, though can occurrence in the main floodplains though the reach thicknesses of some 200 m in the south of country has also experienced occasional droughts. Cambodia (Feldman and Rosenboom, 2001). Geology Resources of copper, gold, zinc, lead, tin and iron ore occur (EU, 2012) in association with some of Cambodia forms part of a stable continental block the Palaeozoic basement rocks and igneous with a basement of Palaeozoic and older rocks. intrusions. Deposits of gold exist in the north- These form numerous isolated outcrops in the eastern highlands, exploitation being small-scale and uplands surrounding the central plains, but in lower- artisanal. Copper/gold resources, hosted in diorite, lying areas are largely covered by Mesozoic deposits also occur at Porphyry Creek in Preah Vihear of the Khorat Basin which extends over a large part Province. Gold occurs at the nearby Senator and of Cambodia and Thailand (McDougall, 2009; Angkor Wat exploration projects, the former Figure 2). The overlying Mesozoic (Triassic– associated with the Phnum Lung historic gold mine Cretaceous) sediments are mainly fluvial and (McDougall, 2009). Both alluvial and vein-hosted shallow marine sandstones, with less significant Figure 2. Simplified geological map of Cambodia. Source http://www.opendevelopmentcambodia.net (Creative Commons Licence). 2 gold occur at these sites, though exploitation is of wells in basalt have failed (ADB, 2014). The small-scale. The gold mineralisation is associated numbers of wells and boreholes in Cambodia is with sulphide minerals, dominated by pyrite, unknown but estimated at around 500,000. Of the pyrrhotite, chalcopyrite, sphalerite, galena and wells recorded on national databases, the vast arsenopyrite, as well as haematite. majority are in the alluvial aquifers, and most of these are present in the Mekong delta (ADB, 2014). Deposits of phosphorite occur at Phnom Totung and Tuk Meas in Kampot Province, as well as in Groundwater Quality Battambang Province. Oil and gas reserves have been discovered 200 km offshore though these are Overview not exploited. Limited data are available to assess the quality of Soils are mainly sandy and nutrient-poor in the groundwater across all the aquifers in Cambodia upland areas, reflecting dominance of underlying although monitoring of the most significant aquifers sandstone and granitic basement rocks. More fertile is carried out (Ministry of Rural Development, alluvium and lacustrine deposits occur along the MRD, for rural water supply and Ministry of floodplain of the Mekong and other major rivers Industry and Handicrafts (MIH), for urban water) and around the Tonle Sap. (ADB, 2013). The largest volume of accessible data by far is for the alluvial aquifers of the Mekong Groundwater Availability river/delta system, which has been a response to the discovery more than a decade ago of high The climate ensures that Cambodia has abundant concentrations of arsenic in the groundwater resources of both surface water and groundwater. (Feldman and Rosenboom, 2001). Arsenic By far the largest water use in Cambodia is for constitutes the most significant water-quality agriculture, whether by irrigation or rain-fed. Water problem in the aquifers of Cambodia, though for agriculture has traditionally been supplied almost additional and related problems occur with high exclusively from surface water, although the country (often very high) concentrations of iron, manganese has experienced recently a rapid rise in the use of and ammonium. Problems also occur from groundwater for rice irrigation. Increases in agricultural, industrial and urban wastewater groundwater abstraction of some 10% per year have pollution (Clausen, 2009), including bacterial been estimated for irrigation in the Mekong delta in contamination (ADB, 2013; Thomas et al., 2013). the last few years (Erban and Gorelick, 2016). Access to adequate sanitation in 2002 was just 50% Unchecked, such a large rate of expansion of in urban areas and <10% in rural areas (Irvine et al., shallow groundwater abstraction would result in 2006). Aquifers in the south-east are also vulnerable rapidly declining groundwater levels with the to saline intrusion if over-pumped. Occasional potential loss of capability to abstract using shallow exceedances of a number of other elements above suction pumps, and possible increases in land drinking-water standards or guidelines have been subsidence (Erban and Gorelick, 2016). recorded, though these are of likely lower health Drinking water is supplied substantially from impact and water-supply significance. groundwater resources: this supplies some 58% of the population’s drinking water in the dry season Nitrogen species and the proportion increases