Scientists from the Mekong Delta countries of Vietnam, Thailand, Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia and the US are convening in Ho Chi Minh City for a seminar on persistent organic pollutants (POPs) from December 13-16.
The four-day seminar, co-organised by the HCMC University of Natural Sciences, the city’s US Consulate General and the International Crane Foundation (ICF) will initiate research POPs in the Mekong River.
Scientists say that POPs harm human beings’ health and the environment across the world. POPs from insecticides and other sources enter the water surface in rivers, ponds or marshes. The Mekong is one of the world’s most important rivers but there little research on POPs has been carried out on this river.
The POP project, with funds supplied the US Department of State will be conducted by the ICF, a US-based non-governmental organisation, in cooperation with the Mekong Region University Network, which includes 18 universities around the region. The project is part of US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton’s Mekong River Basin Initiative, in which the US will work with Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Thailand to cope with trans-national challenges in education, environment and health care.
At the seminar, participating scientists will draw up a strategy to collect specimens of POPs and map the Mekong River’s wet lands and exotic wild grass.
They will spend two days, from December 14-15, visiting the Tram Chim Sanctuary in the Mekong Delta province of Dong Thap on a fact-finding tour./.
The four-day seminar, co-organised by the HCMC University of Natural Sciences, the city’s US Consulate General and the International Crane Foundation (ICF) will initiate research POPs in the Mekong River.
Scientists say that POPs harm human beings’ health and the environment across the world. POPs from insecticides and other sources enter the water surface in rivers, ponds or marshes. The Mekong is one of the world’s most important rivers but there little research on POPs has been carried out on this river.
The POP project, with funds supplied the US Department of State will be conducted by the ICF, a US-based non-governmental organisation, in cooperation with the Mekong Region University Network, which includes 18 universities around the region. The project is part of US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton’s Mekong River Basin Initiative, in which the US will work with Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Thailand to cope with trans-national challenges in education, environment and health care.
At the seminar, participating scientists will draw up a strategy to collect specimens of POPs and map the Mekong River’s wet lands and exotic wild grass.
They will spend two days, from December 14-15, visiting the Tram Chim Sanctuary in the Mekong Delta province of Dong Thap on a fact-finding tour./.
