Xenobiotic Input to the Prut River (XENOPRUT)

The 953 km long Prut is the second largest tributary of the Danube. It flows for the first 211 km eastwards in the Ukraine, then forms the border between Ukraine and Romania (31 km) and then the border between Romania and Moldova (711 km). The catchment of the Prut is intensively used for agriculture and vineyards. Tributaries of the Prut as well as the upper and middle sections are affected by untreated urban wastewater discharge, waste disposal, and outdated industrial production modes. Groundwater contamination by xenobiotics may pose a health threat to people living in rural areas adjacent to the Prut because people use water from the upper aquifers in tube wells directly as drinking water.

The objective of XENOPRUT is to study the contribution of urban and agricultural sources of organic water pollutants, heavy metals and nutrients to the overall pollution in the Prut River focusing on measuring environmental exposure, evaluating inputs, and the behaviour in surface and groundwater.

Partners

Igor Povar and Tudor Lupascu (Institute of Chemistry of the Academy of Sciences of Moldova in Kishinev, Moldova)

Zaharie Moldovan (National Institute of Research and Development for Isotopic and Molecular Technology in Cluj-Napoca, Romania)

Funding

SNSF / SCOPES (Scientific cooperation between Eastern Europe and Switzerland)