Denmark will provide grant assistance of USD 1.1 million for research project related to arsenic pollution of groundwater in the Red River Delta in Vietnam.
Arsenic contamination in groundwater poses health threats to people in many flood plain areas where drinking water and irrigation is based on groundwater. In Vietnam, urban and rural water supply in flood plains is increasingly being converted to groundwater, which in the longer term might impact the mobilization of arsenic content in groundwater reservoirs in flood plains.
“The research project will provide a good opportunity for Vietnamese and Danish research institutions to engage in applied research on an important topic of relevance for authorities, water service providers and the public. The project will support Vietnamese scientists in further enhancing their research capabilities and international experience”, says Counselor Jan Moeller Hansen.
The objectives of the new Danish financed research project is to obtain a fundamental understanding of the processes controlling the groundwater arsenic content and the dynamic interaction between groundwater and surface water in the Red River Basin in Vietnam, through detailed hydrogeological and geochemical investigations. The project also aims at providing knowledge and tools of crucial importance for the management of groundwater resources in flood plains where the supply for drinking water and irrigation is threatened by arsenic.
The project will further enhance the research capacity of Vietnamese research organizations through human resources development and the establishment of research facilities and research field sites.
Denmark will provide technical and financial assistance to the research project, which will be implemented during a three years period from 2004 to 2007.
The research project will be implemented through a co-operation between Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland, Technical University of Denmark, DHI Water and Environment and Hanoi University of Mining and Geology, Hanoi University of Science and Northern Hydrogeological and Engineering Geological Division.
