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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Water
Sec. Environmental Water Quality
Volume 6 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/frwa.2024.1474499

Assessment of residual pesticides and other organic pollutants using passive samplers in Can Tho River, Vietnam, and Cagayan de Oro River Basin, Philippines

Provisionally accepted
Maria Luisa B. Salingay Maria Luisa B. Salingay 1*Chris Zevenbergen Chris Zevenbergen 1Assela Pathirana Assela Pathirana 2
  • 1 Delft University of Technology, Delft, Netherlands
  • 2 IHE Delft Institute for Water Education, Delft, Netherlands

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Agriculture-dependent developing Southeast Asian countries need to assess residual pesticides in receiving water from agricultural runoff as one of the basis for the establishment of baseline data. Monitoring residual pesticides in surface water is challenging due to pesticides' irregular/intermittent emission and low solubility in water. To address the challenge of pesticide assessment, passive samplers composed of silicon rubber sheets (SR) and speedisk (SD) were used to capture hydrophobic and hydrophilic organic pesticides and other organic pollutants, respectively. Samplers were submerged uninterruptedly for at least 30 days in three selected sites in Can Tho River, Mekong Delta, Vietnam, and Cagayan de Oro River Basin, Philippines, for two years. Passive samplers (SR spiked with 232 pesticides) captured 83 and 69 residual pesticides at concentrations of ng/L levels in Vietnam and the Philippines, respectively, which is unattainable through conventional grab sampling methods. Trace concentrations of banned compounds such as OCPs, PCBs, and PAHs were also detected at pg/L levels. The success of this alternative methodology can be attributed to the combination of passive samplers tailored for nonpolar (water-insoluble) and polar (water-soluble) organic contaminants coupled with sensitive analytical instruments, including GCMSMS and LCMSMS.

    Keywords: Mekong Delta1, CDO River Basin2, residual pesticides3, passive samplers4, Emerging pollutants5

    Received: 01 Aug 2024; Accepted: 02 Oct 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Salingay, Zevenbergen and Pathirana. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Maria Luisa B. Salingay, Delft University of Technology, Delft, Netherlands

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