Nitrates in drinking water in Philippines, Thailand

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Nitrates in drinking water in Philippines, Thailand

Ungelesener Beitragvon newsclip » Fr Nov 23, 2007 9:32 am

Nitrates in drinking water in Philippines, Thailand: Greenpeace

MANILA (AFP) — Thousands of people in rural Thailand and the Philippines face serious health problems from drinking water contaminated with nitrates, a report by the environmental group Greenpeace said Thursday.

The study released in Bangkok and Manila said intensive agricultural practices and excessive use of nitrogen fertilisers had polluted artesian wells used for drinking water.

Greenpeace said it sampled water from 30 percent of all groundwater wells from both countries and found nitrate levels above the World Health Organisation's safety limit.

The report said contamination was greatest in those areas that used large quantities of nitrogen fertilisers.

It said the greatest risk of nitrate poisoning was "blue baby syndrome", which occurs in infants given nitrate-laden water, and particularly affects babies under four months. It can cause headaches, stupor, fatigue, coma, convulsions, asphyxia and even death, the report said.

Nitrate-contaminated drinking water can also potentially lead to cancers of the digestive tract and has been associated with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma as well as bladder and ovarian cancer, it added.

"Communities think that the water they drink every day is clean because physically, it doesn't smell bad or look bad. But it is actually laced with nitrates from fertilisers which people don't normally associate with pollution," Greenpeace campaigner Daniel Ocampo said in a statement.

"This report shows that unless governments implement policies to ensure the proper use and application of fertilisers in agriculture, we will lose more of our valuable water resources.

Ocampo called for fertiliser subsidies to be phased out and reduced use of the chemicals.

AFP 23. Nov. 2007

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Re: Nitrates in drinking water in Philippines, Thailand

Ungelesener Beitragvon newsclip » Fr Nov 23, 2007 10:53 am

ENVIRONMENT / FARMERS IN THE DARK

Excessive fertiliser use leading to water contamination

APINYA WIPATAYOTIN

The excessive use of nitrogen-based fertiliser has caused water contamination in Kanchanaburi and Suphan Buri, a Greenpeace campaigner said. Natwipha Ewasakul of Greenpeace said 11 water samples were collected near asparagus farms in Kanchanaburi and five samples from rice fields in Suphan Buri in October and all were found to be contaminated with nitrate. The activist did not provide details of which districts the samples were collected from.

The problem is critical for Kanchanaburi as the level of contamination, at 152 mg/l, is three times higher than the safety limit of 50 mg/l, set by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

The water contamination in Suphan Buri slightly exceeded the limit at 55.6-56.9 mg/l.

Ms Natwipha said water samples from mandarin orange plantations in Chiang Mai were found to be acceptable at less than 9 mg/l.

''We have found very close relations between the excessive use of fertiliser and the amount of nitrate pollution. In the case of Kanchanaburi, an asparagus farm owner told us that he uses approximately 200kg of fertiliser per rai a year. That is enormous,'' she said.

Farmers, she said, did not know that excessive use of fertiliser can cause a negative impact on the environment.

''They just want to nourish their plants,'' she said.

Figures released by Greenpeace demonstrated that the use of nitrogen fertiliser in Asia has increased dramatically, rising approximately 17-fold in the last 40 years. In Thailand asparagus farmers in Nakhon Pathom used 1,000 kilogramme of fertiliser per rai a year.

The activist said the crop absorbs only 5% of the fertiliser and the remaining fertiliser breaks down in the soil, eventually releasing nitrous oxide _ a major greenhouse gas _ into the atmosphere. Nitrous oxide has 296 times more impact on global warming than that per mass unit of carbon dioxide.

''We have planned to forward this information to the Pollution Control Department, urging it to find effective ways of dealing with the problem. The department's job is to tackle water contamination. In the case of nitrate contamination in artesian wells, the agency sets the acceptable rate at 45 mg/l,'' she added. Water contaminated with nitrate is hazardous to health. It causes '' blue baby syndrome'', or methemoglobinemia, which occurs in infants who consume nitrate-laden water. Mostly the illness is found in babies under four months old.

The contamination is also linked with cancer of the digestive tract and has been associated with other types of cancer such as non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, bladder and ovarian cancers.

Greenpeace had also released a report on the high level of heavy metal contamination _ lead, copper and zinc _ in groundwater samples taken from Ban Nong Pet, close to the Northern Region Industrial Estate in Lamphun province.

Bangkok Post Nov. 23, 2007


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