Research Plan/Network Program Proposed Research Title: Investigation of Urban Environmental Pollutions and the Potential Human Health Impacts in Urban Poor of Cambodia a) Overall research questions, objective (impact) and relevance of the activity This proposed project attempts to create opportunities and extend the scientific research focus to a deeper level, for the DES faculty members, in purpose to fulfill the data and knowledge gaps where the country looking for. Urban environmental pollutions are major issues in developing countries; however, the environmental managements/controls are not at same pace. The research hypothesis is “local pollution sources contributed significantly to the environmental pollutions and human being and they can be mitigated”. Where the overall research question can be “what are the relationships between the pollution sources and the impacts on human health? This specific research will diagnose and identify the current status of environment quality for different compartments (groundwater, air and solid waste), both technical and management counter measures will be proposed to tackle the environmental problems. Both community science (household survey) and scientific research approaches (environmental sampling and laboratory analysis) will be applied for this research. The findings from this research can be the scientific inputs and policy recommendations for a better environmental management. The results will take a crucial part in updating the status of environmental quality condition and public awareness. b) Specific research questions and objectives Specific research questions • What are chemicals and physical characteristics of the selected environmental compartments? • What is the fate and transport of the pollutions in the environmental medias? • What are the potential impacts on the human health? • What are the suitable counter measures to minimize the environmental pollution sources and the adverse human health impacts? • What are the possible options to mitigate the environmental problems? To achieve the above overall objective, the specific objectives are: • To determine the current status of environmental pollutions in urban area of Cambodia • To estimate the potential human health impact arising from exposure to the polluted environment; and • To identify possible countermeasures and provide policy recommendation to for future environmental management c) Planned outputs and expected outcomes - Scientific Results: since the area of research focus mainly on urban environmental issues. Therefore, the scientific data such as (1) Groundwater quality monitoring data, (2) Urban air quality and indoor air quality monitoring, (3) solid waste composition and leachate chemicals characterization, (4) Propose solution for environmental management, will be produced to support the government policy in the area of environmental protection. It will also draw a baseline information for planning for a long term monitoring especially on landfill leachate and Ultimately, the results will be used for of publications. - Dissemination (publications/conference contributions, etc.): The opportunity for the research team to present the findings to relevance workshops to be organized in Cambodia. - Scientific exchange: it will be, flexible case by case, conducted in the form of participation in either national or international conference or other possible ways. - Interactions with government and society: linkage between academic or research institution with the government agencies such as Ministry of Environment, Ministry of Rural Development, Ministry of Health will be materialized because they are the main users of the scientific research findings into policy development or decision making processes. d) Background This research project is proposed to respond to the need of the scientific information where are missing in Cambodia. Owing to the rapid economic growth with urbanization, industrialization and motorization has put more pressures on the environment especially in developing Asian countries, like Cambodia. However, the management capacity for the environment has not developed at the same pace (Kim Oanh, 2012). UNDP Cambodia (2016) stated that the environmental problems are the challenges at both rural and urban areas. Urban population increases the waste and pollution. Human activities generate waste and the amounts tend to increase as the demand for quality of life increases (Ngoc et al., 2009). There is a significant increase of the waste generation in Phnom Penh over the period 2003-2015 in correlation with the population growth and economic development (JICA, 2005; Seingheng et al., 2015). Several studies confirmed that unsound landfill management could potentially polluted the soil and groundwater adjacent to the landfill over time (Akinbile and Yusoff, 2011) and Hossain et al. (2014) groundwater nearby the landfill is unacceptable for drinking water purpose. It is strongly suggested, Hossain et al. (2014), that the control of surface and ground water contamination should take into consideration for the protection of environment and public health through the improved techniques for solid waste management, leachate collection, its recycling or treatment and surface and ground water monitoring. Seng et al. (2013) estimated that the daily waste generation will reach around 2,800 ton in 2020 while was only about 1,300 ton. These amounts would put a lot of more pressure on the final disposal at the landfill, Dangkor, where officially operated since 2009. Bunrith et al. (2011) reported that technical arrangement, storage and discharge, collection and transport, and disposal are still in poor condition which leads to the environmental and health risks. The nearby groundwater can be polluted by leachate, if landfill is not well managed as indicated by Chin (2011). To what extend the landfill leachate effect on the well water quality around the dumpsite is still unknown and hence needed to be determined. Another environmental issue is indoor air pollution, when the impact of air pollution on human health is assessed there is a strong tendency to focus importantly on outdoor air pollution. WHO (2006) reported that around 3 billion people still cook and heat their homes using solid fuels (i.e. wood, crop wastes, charcoal, coal and dung) in open fires and leaky stoves. Most are poor, and live in low- and middle-income countries. Such inefficient cooking fuels and technologies produce high levels of household air pollution with a range of health- damaging pollutants, including small soot particles that penetrate deep into the lungs. Domestic cooking and heating with low quality fuels are common in Asian rural and peri- urban areas. Combustion of these unclean fuels causes a high emission of incomplete combustion products including fine particle and other semi-VOCs (Kim Oanh et al., 2012; Kim Oanh, 2005). Around 76% of Cambodian households still rely on firewood for cooking and 8% for charcoal. In urban area use charcoals about 38% of the total households (MOP, 2014). MoE (2004) also emphasized the human health and indoor air pollution is one of concerns in Cambodia and no studies in Cambodia have directly linked the respiratory illness or quantified the incidence of illness to indoor air quality issues. According to WHO around 4.3 million people a year die from the exposure to household air pollution. However, the actual scientific data in Cambodia is still missing. The outcomes will contribute to raise awareness to create better air quality and improvement of health conditions due to less exposure to toxic emission from burning the solid fuels. DES/RUPP has conducted many research projects since the program officially opened in 2001. The research focus at DES/RUPP cover the surface and groundwater quality issues, air pollution, co-benefit studies between air quality and climate change, solid waste, energy and climate change. Statistically, more than 20 research projects have been carried by DES/RUPP over the period from 2007-2015. DES owns a laboratory that could facilitate various experimental researches related to air quality, solid waste, water quality and microbiology. However, consumables and small equipment are still needed to make this proposed research possible, for instance, personal pump for health risk assessment. e) Strategy and Plan A combination of different research approaches will be applied for this research. Both primary and secondary data will be collected. Primary data collection will comprise of (1) household survey on the water consumption adjacent the polluted areas and domestic combustion; (2) key informant interview; (3) sampling and laboratory analysis for the selected environmental medias – groundwater, indoor air quality and leachate; and others. The secondary data will look into the research associated documents from either published research papers or national available data. Within this pilot grant budget, the overall research activities will be conducted in Phnom Penh and of course, the results can be used as a showcase for other provinces. The overall work plan and delivery is summarized in the following Table 1. Table 1 Work Plan and Delivery 2017 No Activities Delivery Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 1 Desk Studies Literature 2 Data Collection 2.1 Ground Water and Chemical and Physical Leachate sampling cahracteristics of the 2.2 Laboratory analysis polluatns 2.3 Household survey and Supporting data/information Key informant Interview 2.4 Indoor air quality Air quality data monitoring