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Aquaculture Research, 2010, 42, 108^128 doi:10.1111/j.1365-2109.2010.02578.x

Water pollution by Pangasius production in the Mekong

Delta, Vietnam: causes and options for control

Pham Thi Anh1,2,3, Carolien Kroeze2, Simon R Bush3 & Arthur P J Mol3
1
Department of Environmental Technology and Management,Van Lang University, Ho Chi Minh City,Vietnam
2
Environmental System Analysis Group,Wageningen University,Wageningen,The Netherlands
3
Environmental Policy group,Wageningen University,Wageningen,The Netherlands

Correspondence: P. T. Anh, Department of Environmental Technology and Management, Van Lang University, 45 Nguyen Khac Nhu
street, District 1, Ho Chi Minh city,Vietnam. E-mail: phamthianh01@yahoo.com

Abstract Nguyen & De Silva 2009), at an average annual rate

of 35% since 2003 (Fig. 1, MARD 2009a), has led to a
In this paper, we analyse water pollution caused by
range of concerns over the environmental impact of
farming and processing Pangasianodon hypophthal-
both production and processing.Various claims have
mus in the Mekong Delta of Vietnam. The results
been made by consultants, NGOs and multi-lateral
show that 1tonne of frozen ¢llets releases 740 kg
organizations alike about the impact of water pollu-
BOD, 1020 kg COD, 2050 kg TSS, 106 kg nitrogen and
tion (e.g. Mantingh & Dung 2007; WWF 2009), drug
27 kg phosphorus, of which wastewater from ¢sh
and chemical use (Sarter, Nguyen, Hung, Lazard &
ponds contributes 60^90% and sludge from ¢sh
Montet 2007), adverse e¡ects of high feed conversion
ponds and wastewater from processing facilities con-
ratios (APFIC 2005), farm health management and
tributes 3^27% of the total emissions. Overall, the
disease control (Chinh 2005; Sinh 2007) and the car-
combined waste emissions from Pangasius produc-
rying capacities of terrestrial and aquatic environ-
tion and processing account for o1% of the total
ments (Braak 2007). In response, the industry and
TSS, nitrogen and phosphorus loads in the Mekong
Vietnamese government have invested in a range of
Delta. Despite the relatively low contribution to water
state and private safety and quality standard and cer-
pollution, further reductions are possible through
ti¢cation systems (see Bush, Khiem & Sinh 2009) in
more e⁄cient use of inputs and low-cost treatment
the hope of improving production and processing
and re-use of e¥uent streams. The use of cleaner pro-
practices, and allaying the concerns of consumers in
duction technologies and the development of waste-
international markets. However, despite continued
water treatment plants could be applied to large
international claims that Pangasius is ‘unsustain-
farms and processing facilities to reduce water pollu-
able’ (see Mans¢eld 2003; Bush & Duijf 2009), there
tion in Pangasius processing. Low-cost options for
remains relatively little scienti¢c evidence of the nat-
small-scale farms include the optimization of the dis-
ure or the extent of either production or processing
charge design for the re-use of wastewater.
on the environment of the Mekong Delta.
One of the most commonly voiced environmental
Keywords: Pangasius, farming, processing, waste-
concerns of Pangasius farming is the discharge of
water
wastewater and sludge from ponds (which now make
up 98% of the production), ranging in size from 0.2 to
1ha, into rivers and canals (RIA 2 2008). In addition,
Introduction
the Pangasius processing industry, concentrated in
The rapid growth of Pangasianodon hypophthalmus the Mekong Delta close to Pangasius farming areas,
(Pangasius) aquaculture in the Mekong Delta of Viet- is also widely regarded as a major source of waste-
nam (Phan, Bui, Nguyen, Gooley, Ingram, Nguyen, water with high organic matter content. However,

r 2010 The Authors

108 Aquaculture Research r 2010 Blackwell Publishing Ltd
Aquaculture Research, 2010, 42, 108^128
1200
Production (thousand ton)
1000
825
800
600
375
400
255
200 163
0
2003 2004 2005 2006
Year
Figure 1 Pangasius production in the Mekong delta by
farming type. Sources: Dung (2008) and MARD (2009a).
the extent to which Pangasius production is a major
source of water pollution in Vietnam is as yet not
clear. Moreover, an environmental assessment of Pan-
gasius production inVietnam that includes both Pan-
gasius farming as well as industrial processing does
not exist, nor does an inventory of low-cost technolo-
gical interventions options to reduce water pollution
problems for Pangasius production and processing.
This paper provides an empirical analysis of water
pollution arising from Pangasius production and the
possible technical mitigation options. Our speci¢c ob-
jectives are to: (1) identify the causes and impacts of
water pollution associated with Pangasius farming
and processing industry and (2) identify the possible
options to reduce the water pollution relevant to dif-
ferent scales of production and processing in the
Mekong Delta of Vietnam. In doing so, our study
is the ¢rst to systematically analyse the impact
of Pangasius production on water quality in the
Mekong Delta of Vietnam.
Our analysis draws on a wider literature focused on
the identi¢cation of the environmental impacts of ¢sh
production and processing in other countries. For in-
stance, Islam, Khan and Tanaka (2004) identi¢ed e¥u-
ents from ¢sh and shrimp processing as a potential
source of coastal and marine pollution. Using existing
data, they analysed the global production and dis-
charge of waste from processing plants and discussed
the options available for waste treatment and manage-
ment. Several other studies focus on technological ap-
proaches for wastewater treatment and cleaner
production. Thrane, Nielsen and Christensen (2009)
reported signi¢cant environmental improvements in
selected companies producing pickled herring and
canned mackerel ^ especially concerning reduced
water consumption, wastewater production and im-
proved use of ¢sh ‘waste’ for valuable by-products.
r 2010 The Authors
Aquaculture Research r 2010 Blackwell Publishing Ltd, Aquaculture Research, 42, 108^128
Water pollution by Pangasius production in the Mekong Delta P T Anh et al.
1128 Casani, Leth and Knchel (2006) evaluated the mi-
1000 crobiological safety issues associated with water re-
cycling during the production of shrimps (Pandalus
borealis) in brine, indicating how a hazard analysis
and critical control points (HACCP) approach led to
water recovery, treatment and recycling through re-
verse osmosis. More recently, Barros, MagaŁn, Valino,
Bello, Casares and Blanco (2009) indenti¢ed and as-
sessed the best available technologies for possible im-
2007 2008 plementation in a mussel canning facility. In this
paper, we follow a similar line of argumentation, by
analysing the source and relative contribution of
water pollution from Pangasius production and pro-
cessing, and then focus on the potential of existing
technological solutions to mitigate any potential
impact.
The paper is divided into ¢ve sections. The next
section deals with the methods applied during the re-
search. The following two sections deal with the ana-
lysis of water pollution caused by Pangasius farming
and processing in turn. In directly addressing the re-
search questions above, both of these sections ¢rst
present the empirical results of the water quality sys-
tems analysis and the second presents an inventory
of possible solutions, with a discussion of their feasi-
bility in the context of Vietnam. The ¢nal section out-
lines the conclusions and provides recommendations
for suitable technologies and strategies in the context
of Vietnam.
Materials and methods
This paper uses an environmental system analysis
(ESA) approach, de¢ned as a practical strategy for
carrying out decision-oriented multidisciplinary re-
search, using a broad range of analytical tools
(Quade & Miser 1997). A key objective of the ESA ap-
proach is to aid decision makers faced with complex
problems to make choices under uncertainty. More
speci¢cally, our study adopts a partial environmental
systems analysis, following Quade and Miser (1997),
Pluimers (2001), Jawjit (2006) and Neto, Kroeze, Hor-
dijk and Costa (2008), by de¢ning a system’s bound-
aries, identifying environmental indicators and
exploring solutions for mitigating impacts. The
boundary is de¢ned by identifying and describing
the relationship between inputs and outputs to the
system in question (Findeisen & Quade 1997). For
Pangasius, this step requires identifying the most im-
portant sources of water pollution associated with
farming and processing. Second, environmental indi-
109
Water pollution by Pangasius production in the Mekong Delta P T Anh et al.
cators are selected and used to assess the extent and
nature of the environmental problem. Finally, we will
identify reduction options to the water pollution pro-
blems proposed in accordance with the de¢ned sys-
tem boundaries and our research objectives.
For this study, we distinguish two key systems
based on their scale signi¢cance in the development
of the industry: grow-out farming and frozen ¢llet
processing. Hatchery and nursery farming are not in-
cluded in this study (Fig. 2).
Information on these two sub-systems was ob-
tained through the literature, site visits as well as a
limited number of water and sediment quality experi-
ments. Four Pangasius farms were visited, with a to-
tal of 23 ponds, in My Hoa Hung commune, An Giang
province ^ an area considered typical of larger, com-
mercial-scale farming operations (Schut 2009). Dur-
ing these visits, detailed information was collected
through observation and interviews with farmers
and technicians on the production processes and ac-
tivities of each sub-system, their associated waste-
water problems and the e⁄ciency of current
solutions for mitigating pollutants. Additionally, was-
tewater and sludge were sampled from ¢ve ponds
during multiple visits to farms, at various times
throughout the production cycle. Because farmers
exchange water every day, the diurnal variation in
the water quality is larger than the variation in the
production cycle. Care was therefore exercised to
sample between 3 and 6 h after the water in the pond
was exchanged. The quality of the water content and
the settling capacity of the pond sludge were ana-
lysed in three settling columns, each with 10 sam-
pling valves. The water quality parameters used in
the analysis were BOD, COD,TSS, total nitrogen, total
Pangasius Grow-out
Input farming system
Feed,
water,
chemical
and Pangasius frozen fillet
medicine processing system
Output:
Pangasius Frozen Fillet
Figure 2 Schematic overview of the Pangasius production, including two systems:The Pangasius grow-out farming and
Pangasius frozen ¢llet processing system. The dashed line indicates the boundaries of the system studies here. See Fig. 4
for details.
110 Aquaculture Research r 2010 Blackwell Publishing Ltd, Aquaculture Research, 42, 108^128
Aquaculture Research, 2010, 42, 108–128
phosphorus and N-NH3. Temperature, pH and Coli-
forms were additionally measured in situ. All samples
were analysed according to the Standard Methods of
Water Sampling and Analysing (APHA 2005).
Three Pangasius processing companies were
also visited. One of these companies has the largest
processing capacity in An Giang Province at
100 tonnes day  1, while the other two companies
are representative of more average processing plants,
with a capacity of 47 and 50 tonnes day  1 respec-
tively. Wastewater from these processing industries
was sampled and analysed following the same proce-
dure as for water from production ponds. The mea-
surement results have been reported to the Ministry
of Agriculture and Rural Development in an internal
report (Anh & Mai 2009a). This report also includes
the results of a pilot study in which wastewater from
the Pangasius farm with a sedimentation pond was
used to irrigate and fertilize rice ¢elds as a pollution
reduction strategy. The following presents a synthesis
and interpretation of the results.
Results: Pangasius farming
System de¢nition
Our analysis focuses on Pangasius production in
ponds, with particular attention to the preparation,
cultivation and harvesting phases in the production
cycle (Fig. 3). In the preparation phase (I), the pond is
treated by draining the water, cleaning algae and
grass from the bottom and surrounding embank-
ment, dredging sludge and lining the bottom with
Ca(OH)2 (10^15 kg/100 m2) to adjust the pH and dis-
infect the pathogens. After this, the pond is left empty
Emission Water pollution
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Aquaculture Research, 2010, 42, 108^128 Water pollution by Pangasius production in the Mekong Delta P T Anh et al.
Pond construction
Preparation phase
(I)
Pond treatment
First water input
Breeding stock
Feeding and Nursing
Cultivation phase
(II)
Daily Water exchange
Frequent Sludge discharge
Harvesting
Harvesting phase
(III) Pond emptying
Figure 3 Schematic overview of Pangasius production
in ponds; Bold: included in this study.
and exposed for 2^3 days to further sterilize through
ultraviolet radiation before being ¢lled again with
water directly from the nearest rivers or canals. The
ponds sampled in My Hao Hung are a mix of ‘inland
ponds’, located adjacent to river banks, with a surface
of o5000 m2 and a depth of about 2^3 m, and‘island
ponds’, located on riverside wetland areas or on river
banks, with a surface area more than 5000 m2 and a
depth of approximately 5 m deep (Mantingh & Dung
2007).
In the cultivation phase (II), the pond is commonly
stocked at a density of about 20^40 ¢ngerlings m  2
(Hao 2007). The ¢sh are then fed throughout an aver-
age grow-out period of 5 months. Feeding is the most
expensive step in Pangasius farming (Hung & Huy
2006) and largely determines the pro¢tability of the
production (Phuong, Sinh, Thinh, Chau, Anh & Hau
2007). Two main types of ¢sh feed exist: industrial
pellet feed and home-made feed. Home-made feed
can cause more sludge and water pollution because
it is less e⁄cient, requiring larger quantities than pel-
let feed to reach the same growth rate of the ¢sh. This
is in part the result of the di¡erence in the moisture
content between the two feeds. The feed conversion
ratio ranges between 2.0 and 3.5 for home-made feed
or between1.5 and1.7 for industrial pellet feed (Hung
& Huy 2006).
If the ¢sh exhibit symptoms of disease, the farmers
that we visited apply antibiotics following the in-
structions of a veterinarian. There are nearly 400
r 2010 The Authors
Aquaculture Research r 2010 Blackwell Publishing Ltd, Aquaculture Research, 42, 108^128
products, including a wide variety of antibiotic, vita-
mins and probiotics available on the market for Pan-
gasius farming alone (Chinh 2005). Most widely used
are vitamins and probiotic, although the wide variety
of generic brand names means that it is not always
clear to farmers, processors and regulators alike as
to what exactly these probiotics contain (Mantingh
& Dung 2007). Exported ¢sh are often checked for
antibiotic use by processing companies and import-
ing authorities. However, there is also a high degree
of uncertainty regarding what impacts these drugs
and chemicals have on the surrounding environ-
ment.
The farmers reported that the high daily water ex-
change increases the growth rate of the ¢sh and the
quality of the meat. More speci¢cally, high water
throughput is believed to increase the proportion of
white meat, which is considered to be of the highest
quality in European and North American markets
(Khoi 2007). Feed also impacts water pollution be-
cause the surplus feed contributes a large concomi-
tant emission to the water phase. The amount of
surplus nutrient that is discharged from the pond dif-
fers depending on the phase of the grow-out cycle.
The percentage of daily water exchange is about
20% during the ¢rst 3^4 months and 40% during
the last 2^3 months (Anh & Mai 2009a). In addition,
the sediment sludge from the bottom of the pond is
also comprised of redundant feed, faecal matter, al-
gae and soil. In the farms visited, the sludge is dis-
charged from the ponds approximately once in every
2 months when the sediment level in the bottom of
the pond is about 20 cm thick with a part of water.
The harvesting phase (III) begins after 6 months of
the grow-out cycle, when individual ¢sh weight
reaches 1^1.2 kg. After harvesting, the pond is once
again emptied and a large amount of wastewater
and sludge are discharged into the surrounding en-
vironment. The emptied pond then repeats the pre-
paration phase.
Based on this description, we distinguish between
several sub-systems in Pangasius farming (see Fig. 4).
Within these sub-systems, four main activities are
particularly critical for water quality: (1) chemicals
and drugs use, (2) feed use, (3) water use and dis-
charge and (4) sediment discharge.We recognize the
environmental impact of pond construction, and
other production sub-systems, such as the produc-
tion of chemicals and medicine, fertilizer, Pangasius
larvae, the production of pellet feed and electricity,
but have excluded these from our system boundary
(Fig. 3).
111
Water pollution by Pangasius production in the Mekong Delta P T Anh et al. Aquaculture Research, 2010, 42, 108–128

Sub-system Activity Pollutants Effects

Biomass CO2, CH4, NOx, Biodiversity

combustion CO, VOC, loss
Pond
construction
Wastewater SS, Fe3+, AL3+,
discharge SO42–, SO2, NOx, Soil quality
deterioration

Chemical & Accumulate

Pond treatment Chemical and Acidification
medicine
medicine use d chemical
production
& medicine
First water input
Fertilizer Global warming
production
NH3, CH4,
Feed use
Breeding stock
Pangasius
larvae Prod. Water
pollution
Feeding/ Nursing Nitrogen,
Phosphoru
Pellet feed s
production Water exchange
Water use
Wastewater
and discharge BOD, TSS,
OSS, H2S,
Energy
Frequency SO42–,
production
sludge discharge heavy
metal Sludge

Pangasius Harvesting
products Sludge Pathogen
discharge

Pond emptying

Figure 4 Schematic overview of Pangasius farming and its environmental impacts. The bold line indicates the system
boundary; bold system elements and the underlined substances are included in the analysis. Including eutrophication
and toxicity problems.

Assessment of water pollution after harvesting. Rainfall and evaporation were not
taken into account, because both can be considered
Our analysis monitors the £ow of pollutants from the
to be negligible when 30% of the pond water is ex-
pond system to the surrounding environment
changed on a daily basis regardless of the weather
through either wastewater or sludge. In this study,
conditions. It should also be noted that water use is
we refer to wastewater as the water discharged
relatively high in Pangasius farming compared with
through water exchange and emptying the pond at
other aquaculture production systems. For instance,
the end of the grow-out cycle. We are aware that
in shrimp production in Vietnam, farmers exchange
sludge also has a high moisture content; however,
15% of the pond water every 10 days (Anh, Kroeze,
we exclude this from the analysis. The environmental
Bush & Mol 2010).
indicators used to assess these pollution sources are
summarized in Table 1.
Water pollution by wastewater
To assess the indicators for pollution from waste-
water, a water balance of Pangasius ponds is used. In- Box 1 outlines the key parameters of a typical inten-
put water includes water supplied at the start of a sive Pangasius pond for the calculation of the volume
growing cycle and supplemented water pumped dur- of water use (Indicator 1.1; see Box 1 for the para-
ing the cycle. Wastewater includes the water that is meters used for calculation). Ignoring the slope be-
exchanged during the cycle and water discharged tween the surface and the bottom of the pond, as

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Aquaculture Research, 2010, 42, 108^128 Water pollution by Pangasius production in the Mekong Delta P T Anh et al.

Table 1 Indicators for water pollution by Pangasius farming

Environmental issues Indicator number Indicators Unit

1. Wastewater 1.1 Total volume of water use m3 ha  1 year  1

1.2 Total volume of wastewater m3 ha  1 year  1
1.3 BOD mg L  1
1.4 COD mg L  1
1.5 TSS mg L  1
1.6 Total nitrogen mg L  1
1.7 Total phosphorus mg L  1
1.8 N–NH3 mg L  1
1.9 N–NO2 mg L  1
1.10 H2S mg L  1
1.11 DO mg L  1
1.12 Total Coliforms (pathogen) MNP/100 mL
2. Sludge 2.1 Volume of sludge m3 ha  1 year  1
2.2 BOD mg L  1
2.3 COD mg L  1
2.4 TSS mg L  1
2.5 Total nitrogen mg L  1
2.6 Total phosphorus mg L  1
2.7 N–NH3 mg L  1

Box 1 Typical characteristics of a Pangasius farming pond
of 1ha
Area of the pond:10 000 m2
The water level in the pond: 4 m
The daily water exchanged during the cultivation: 30% of
pond water
Density at stocking: 30 Pangasius fish m  2
Average farming period: 6 months (180 days crop  1)
Average mortality: 20%
Average final market weight of fish: 1 kg
Estimated production: 240 tonnes ha  1 crop  1
well as the di¡erences in the width and the length of
the pond, the volume of initially supplied water is
40 000 m3 and water exchange occurs at a rate of ap-
proximately 2160 000 m3 ha  1 crop  1 (assuming
180 days crop  1). This yields a total water supply for
the entire crop of about 2200 000 m3 ha  1.
The volume of wastewater (Indicator 1.2) is almost
equal to the amount of water use, about
2200 000 m3 ha  1 crop  1. Of this amount, we esti-
mate that 8000 m3 ha  1 crop  1 is the moisture
content of sludge (see Indicator 2.1), while
2192000 m3 ha  1 crop  1 is wastewater produced
through continual water exchange and emptying
the pond after harvest.
The values we use for indicators 1.3 to 1.12 (BOD,
COD, TSS, total nitrogen, total phosphorus, N-NH3,
N-NO2, H2S, DO, coliforms) are partly based on the
literature, and partly on experimental research for
this study (Anh & Mai 2009a). We combined our
results with the results from Giang (2008), who
sampled between farms that are infected and those
that are uninfected by common Pangasius diseases.
He studied water quality in 64 intensive Pangasius
farming ponds in the six main farming areas in An
Giang province from March 2005 to December
2006, with a total of 139 samples, comparing unin-
fected and infected farms, and analysing water sam-
ples according to Standard Methods of Water
Sampling and Analysing (APHA 2005). These results
were complemented with data from Tuan (2007) and
Dan, Xuan and Phuc (2008). The resulting compila-
tion of the wastewater characteristics is presented in
Table 2 and compares the average (and range in) pol-
lutant levels of wastewater that is discharged into riv-
ers with the national Vietnamese standards for river
water quality (TCVN). If the pollution content of the
wastewater of a farm does not exceed these stan-
dards, we consider that farm to be non-polluting.
The average values of water quality parameters gen-
erally do not exceed the Vietnamese surface water
quality standards. However, when we consider the var-
iation among ponds (as indicated by the minimum^
maximum range in Table 2), we conclude that there
are probably many individual ponds where
the standards are exceeded. For instance, the average
N-NH3 concentration (1.4 mg L  1) is close to the stan-
dard. However, Giang (2008) found that in 30% of the
ponds studied, the N-NH3 concentrations exceeded
2 mg L  1. When the N-NH3 concentrations exceed
2 mg L  1 (Boyd & Tucker 1998), the water is rich in

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Aquaculture Research r 2010 Blackwell Publishing Ltd, Aquaculture Research, 42, 108^128 113
Water pollution by Pangasius production in the Mekong Delta P T Anh et al.
Table 2 Selected characteristics of the wastewater in Pangasius farming (wastewater), compared withVietnamese standards
for surface water quality (TCVN 5942 ^ 1995)
Parameters Unit
Temperature 1C
pH
BOD mg L  1
COD mg L  1
TSS mg L  1
Total nitrogen mg L  1
Total phosphorus mg L  1
N-NH3 mg L  1
N-NO2 mg L  1
H2S mg L  1
DO mg L  1
Coliforms MNP/100 mL
Source: compilation of results by Giang (2008), Tuan (2007), Dan et al. (2008) and this study.
TCVN 5942 ^ 1995: Vietnamese standard for surface water quality.
Bolds are indicators that are selected for analysis of this study.
nitrogen. The TSS loads also show a large variation
among ponds, which also varies by season. In the rainy
season, the suspended solids in the rivers are higher
and enter the ponds via daily water exchange. For a
number of indicators, the maximum values measured
exceed the standards by a factor of 3^5 (e.g. BOD, COD,
TSS, N-NH3). For some indicators, the values do not de-
cline far below the standards, but given the large vo-
lume of wastewater, they indicate a large pollutant
loading in surrounding rivers (Dan et al. 2008). Simi-
larly, the total coliforms in the wastewater samples are
very high when compared with the standard.
By comparison, Table 2 indicates there are also
individual ponds that meet the water quality stan-
dards because the lower end of the range of concen-
trations for most pollutants is well below these
standards. This indicates that not all Pangasius pro-
duction is currently causing water pollution. We did
not investigate the reasons why some farms perform
better than the others. However, it may be related to
di¡erences in farming practice or the amount of
water used, causing a diluting e¡ect.
Water pollution by sludge
Sludge settles at the bottom of pond and is pumped
out regularly every 2 months during the grow-out
phase and after harvesting. The calculated volume
of sludge (Indicator 2.1) discharged into the environ-
ment is about 8000 m3 ha  1 crop  1 (Anh & Mai
2009a). Not much data are available on sludge qual-
ity ^ de¢ned by COD, BOD, TSS, total nitrogen, total
phosphorus, N-NH3 (Indicators 2.2^2.5). In our lim-
114 Aquaculture Research r 2010 Blackwell Publishing Ltd, Aquaculture Research, 42, 108^128
Aquaculture Research, 2010, 42, 108–128
Average (min^max) TCVN 5942 -1995
30.7 (27.5–34)
7.8 (6.7–9.2) 5.5–9.0
22 (10–78) o25
27 (23–196) o35
61.0 (3.5–274.2) o80
4.0 (3.2–6.0)
1 (0.4–2.21)
1.4 (0.05–4.4) o1
0.158 (0.01–1.36) o0.05
0.035 (0.001–0.64)
5.73 (0.44–15.90)  2
317.32  104 (63.2  104–640  104) 104
ited analysis of sludge (in three farms), we found that
the COD was 1769 mg L  1, BOD was 1061mg L  1,
TSS was 6497 mg L  1, N-NH3 was 12.8 mg L  1, total
nitrogen was 45.6 mg L  1 and total phosphorus was
22.7 mg L  1. These values all far exceed the stan-
dards listed in Table 2. However, sludge is only of con-
cern when it is discharged into surface waters and, as
discussed below, this is not always the case.
Pollution by unit of production
Based on the results presented in Table 2, we can es-
timate the pollution per tonne of fresh ¢sh and for the
total Mekong Delta (Table 3; Fig. 5). We believe that
our per pond averages are representative for the total
Pangasius production in the Mekong Delta, given
that 90% of Pangasius is produced in ponds with a
relatively small range in surface area. The results
show that wastewater is the largest source of water
pollution, responsible for between 60% and 90% of
the nutrient loading from loading from Pangasius
ponds. The concentrations of pollutants in sludge
are much higher, but lower in volume. Nevertheless,
the discharge of sludge can cause local pollution pro-
blems when it is discharged into surface waters.
Reduction options
The second objective of this study is to identify op-
tions to reduce pollution in wastewater from Panga-
sius ponds. This identi¢cation will in part be based on
the above analysis, taking into consideration the var-
iation in pollutant concentrations in wastewater
r 2010 The Authors
Aquaculture Research, 2010, 42, 108^128 Water pollution by Pangasius production in the Mekong Delta P T Anh et al.

Table 3 Wastewater and sludge contaminant concentrations caused by Pangasius farming in the Mekong Delta

Measured Per tonne of fresh fishw Total for Mekong Deltaz

No Indicator Value Unit Value Unit Value Unit

I Wastewater ‰
1.1 Water use 2 200 000 m3 ha  1 year  1 9166.7 m3 tonne  1 10 340 000 000 m3 year  1
1.2 Wastewater production 2 192 000 m3 ha  1 year  1 9133.3 m3 tonne  1 10 302 400 000 m3 year  1
1.3 BOD content 22 mg L  1 200.9 kg tonne  1 226 652 800 kg year  1
1.4 COD content 27 mg L  1 246.6 kg tonne  1 278 164 800 kg year  1
1.5 TSS content 61 mg L  1 557.1 kg tonne  1 628 446 400 kg year  1
1.6 Total N content 4 mg L  1 36.5 kg tonne  1 41 209 600 kg year  1
1.7 Total P content 1 mg L  1 9.1 kg tonne  1 10 302 400 kg year  1
1.8 N-NH3 content 1.4 mg L  1 12.8 kg tonne  1 14 423 360 kg year  1
II Sludge
2.1 Sludge 8000 m3 ha  1 year  1 33.3 m3 tonne  1 37 600 000 m3
2.2 BOD content 1061 mg L  1 35.4 kg tonne  1 39 893 600 kg
2.3 COD content 1769 mg L  1 59.0 kg tonne  1 66 514 400 kg
2.4 TSS content 6497 mg L  1 216.6 kg tonne  1 244 287 200 kg
2.5 Total N content 45.6 mg L  1 1.5 kg tonne  1 1 714 560 kg
2.6 Total P content 22.7 mg L  1 0.8 kg tonne  1 853 520 kg
2.7 N-NH3 content 12.8 mg L  1 0.4 kg tonne  1 481 280 kg

Compilation results ^ see Table 2.

wCalculated from (1) based on the characteristic of box 1.
zAssuming 1128 ktonne total Pangasius Production in ponds (data for 2008 according to MARD 2009b).
‰Excluding N-NO2, H2S, DO.

90 Our analysis focuses on two general approaches for

80
Sludge
wastewater mitigation (see Fig. 6). First, waste pre-
Pollutants' load (kg / ton)

70 vention and minimization at the source ^ including

60
50
40
30
20
10
0 and re-use of waste materials in other production
BOD/10 COD/10
Figure 5 Water pollution by Pangasius farming. Units:
kg per tonne of fresh Pangasius ¢sh. See Table 3 for more
details.
among farms. The e¡ectiveness of a strategy or a
technology is not the only criterion for the selection
of promising options.We also take into consideration
economic feasibility. This is especially important, gi-
ven the reticence of farmers to make large invest-
ments in upgrading farm infrastructure to mitigate
water pollution when faced with high levels of eco-
nomic risk (Phuong et al. 2007; N. T. T. Loc, S. R. Bush,
L. X. Sinh & N. T. Khiem, unpubl. obs.). Several
sources of information are used to identify and evalu-
ate wastewater mitigation options, including the lit-
erature, newly collected information from ¢eld
research and the systems analysis presented above.
Wastewater
good housekeeping (Ramjeawon 2000; Hennings-
son, Smith & Hyde 2001; Hyde, Smith, Smith & Hen-
ningsson 2001), changing to other raw material
inputs (Jorgenson & Wilcoxen 1990; Vigneswaran,
Jegatheesan & Visvanathan 1999) and adopting new
technologies. Second, through on- or o¡site recycling
TSS/10 Total N Total P
processes. O¡site re-use and recycling options create
economic bene¢ts as less energy is consumed for pro-
ducing new products from recycled materials, and it
spares the environment from further abuse and de-
gradation as less virgin material is used (EPA 1996).
If there are no possibilities of waste minimization or
recycling and re-use, the treatment of waste streams
is the approach of last resort. The treatment technol-
ogies for aquaculture e¥uents are mainly based on
the mechanical separation of solids when draining
water from the ponds, such as sedimentation tanks
or ponds.
Waste prevention and minimization in the ¢sh ponds
The di¡erent measures, summarized in Table 4 and
outlined below, include techniques for the reduction
of water, feed, chemicals and drugs use, as well as

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Aquaculture Research r 2010 Blackwell Publishing Ltd, Aquaculture Research, 42, 108^128 115
Water pollution by Pangasius production in the Mekong Delta P T Anh et al.
Clean water
Waste prevention:
- Water use reduction
- Feed use reduction
POND
- Chemical/medicine
use reduction Wastewater
- Treatment of input
water
- Good farm cleaning
Sludge
Figure 6 Options to reduction water pollution by Pangasius farming.
the treatment of input water and improved farm
cleaning.
Water use reduction in aquaculture includes several
techniques, of which only two are currently under
investigation for Pangasius farming in Vietnam:
ozone aeration and the use of probiotics. Both tend
to improve the water quality in the pond, as a result
of which the frequency of pumping water into the
ponds can be reduced. It should be noted that these
two techniques have not been tested thoroughly un-
der tropical conditions, and their economic feasibility
needs further study. Nevertheless, we include these
in our study because they seem to be promising op-
tions for pollution control. We consider the costs of
ozone aeration and probiotics to be considerable for
Vietnamese farmers and classify these options as re-
latively expensive.
Ozone aeration technology is used widely in aqua-
culture production in the United States, Korea and
India. It has several advantages for farmers and the
environment.With this technology, ozone is aerated
into ponds via ozone generation equipment. Ex-
changing water in ponds is then not necessary and,
as a result, the associated environmental pollution
is minimized. This method has also proved to be
economically e⁄cient. For instance, the produc-
tion of Macrobrachium rosenbergii in ponds using
ozone aeration has been recorded at around
10 000 kg ha  1, while the highest productivity in
ponds using a water fan ranges between 4000 and
6000 kg ha  1 (LieŒm 2008). Luan (2008) experi-
mented with ozone aeration in Pangasius ponds
and identi¢ed several positive e¡ects on water qual-
ity. The ¢sh were observed to be eating normally and
116 Aquaculture Research r 2010 Blackwell Publishing Ltd, Aquaculture Research, 42, 108^128
Aquaculture Research, 2010, 42, 108–128
Constructed
wetland or River
water reuse
Wastewater
Sediment pond
Reuse of sludge
crowding near the ozone devices. The number of
mortalities was reduced by 35^50% compared with
ponds without ozone aeration. The pH increased
(from 6.5 to 7.1), leading to the precipitation of alu-
minium, and the other parameters such as TSS,
COD, BOD and N-NH3 were also signi¢cantly re-
duced. However, ozone aeration is currently not yet
being applied in Pangasius farming because Panga-
sius can survive at relatively low oxygen levels. As a
result, ozone aeration requires the installation of a
full aeration system, making it a relatively expensive
option.
Probiotics are microorganisms that can feed on or-
ganic substances and other minerals. As a result, the
mass of living organisms in ponds increases after the
introduction of probiotics. These organisms are used
for the conversion of organic and inorganic sub-
stances from aquacultural waste. Attempts have
been made to use probiotic bacteria in aquaculture
to improve water quality by balancing the bacterial
population in water and reducing pathogenic bacter-
ial loads. Hui-Rong, Yong, Wei-Shang and Huai-Shu
(1999) studied the use of Alken Clear-Flo1200 bacter-
ia in raising Penaeus japonicus and noted a signi¢cant
reduction in the level of ammonia after 1 week rela-
tive to a control pond. Similar ¢ndings have been re-
ported by Austin, Baudet and Stobie (1992), Abidi
(2003) and Go¤mez, BalcaŁzar and Shen (2007). InViet-
nam, virtually no research has been conducted on
the e¡ects of probiotics despite the fact they are ap-
plied liberally in both Pangasius and shrimp farming.
To ensure their proper use, it is necessary to have
clearer guidelines and control over private sector
extension workers, in conjunction with publically
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Aquaculture Research, 2010, 42, 108^128 Water pollution by Pangasius production in the Mekong Delta P T Anh et al.

Table 4 Options for the reduction of water pollution by Pangasius farming in the Mekong Delta

Pollutants or Subsystem and

Description problems activity Currently applied/
Name of option of the option reduced to be applied Remarks costs

Waste prevention and minimization at source

Water use reduction Techniques for cleaning Volume of Water Reduce volume Hardly applied;
water so that less wastewater refreshment of water use and relatively expensive
pumping is needed: wastewater options
ozone aeration and
probiotic
Feed use reduction More efficient feed use: BOD, COD, SS, Feeding Reduce surplus At least half of the
replace homemade feed feed in sediment farms use homemade
by good quality pellet feed feed; pellet feed more
expensive
Chemical, medicine Techniques for efficient Accumulated Pond Reduce amount Not applied; if applied
use reduction use of chemicals and chemicals and treatment/nursing of accumulated appropriately, no cost
drugs drugs chemicals and included but gains
drugs in the sludge
Treatment of inlet Techniques for cleaning Risk of Pangasius First water input, Reduce risk of Filtering is not applied;
water and good farms and filtering inlet disease and dead water intake and disease and dead relatively costly
farm cleaning water fish pond emptying fish, (one of
the cause of water
pollution)
Treatment and reuse of waste stream
Sludge treatment Using a pond for settling All substances Frequency sludge Dewatering sludge o10% of farms
in sediment ponds the sludge, the effluent can discharge and pond can be used for level- applied; costs are
be treated as wastewater emptying ling of low land or relatively low if land is
putting in fruit garden available
Treatment of Sub-surface horizontal All substances Water exchange Not applied; costs are
wastewater in flow constructed Pond emptying moderate if land is
constructed wetland is possible and effluent from available
wetlands sediment pond
Reuse wastewater Land treatment of All substances Water exchange Investment costs Pilot for use of
with optimization of wastewater in agriculture and pond can be considerable, wastewater in rice field,
the discharge design emptying the additional no optimization of
operational costs are discharge design
relatively low.

Source: Hau (2008).

accessible guidelines for farmers on suitable probio-
tics, thereby increasing their e⁄ciency and reducing
pollution.
Feed use reduction is another option to reduce pollu-
tion, given that redundant feed is the most important
factor in the generation of waste sludge. Hung and
Huy (2006) concluded that high-quality industrial
pellet feed is more e⁄cient for Pangasius than
home-made feed, thereby signi¢cantly improving
the water quality and reducing pressure on loca-
lly sourced ‘trash ¢sh’ from nearby coastal areas (see
APFIC 2005). However, it is also more expensive, cost-
ing from 3.6% to 14.2% more than home-made feed.
In many cases, farmers are aware of the bene¢ts of
using industrial feeds, but given their poor economy
of scale, cannot pro¢tably use them (e.g. Phuong et al.
2007). More research is needed on how both techni-
cal and economic improvements in feed e⁄ciency
can be achieved, especially as at least 50% of the
farms continue using home-made feed in An Giang
province, where most of the Pangasius is grown
(Hoa 2008).
Improved chemicals and drug use is an important
step in reducing pollutants in wastewater, sludge
and the accumulation of these components in the
¢sh itself. A series of state guidelines for correct doses
and frequencies for applying chemicals and drugs al-
ready exist in the Pangasius industry. However, like
probiotics, there is very little control over private sec-
tor agents, leading to con£icting information for the

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Aquaculture Research r 2010 Blackwell Publishing Ltd, Aquaculture Research, 42, 108^128 117
Water pollution by Pangasius production in the Mekong Delta P T Anh et al.
majority of smaller farmers. Larger farms have over-
come this by hiring university graduates to manage
the more technical aspects of production (Loc, Bush,
Sinh & Khiem 2010). The most likely driver for chan-
ging chemical and drug use will be economic: farm-
ers need to be convinced that when applied
appropriately, reduced chemical and drug use will
not lead to lower Pangasius yields and can therefore
signi¢cantly reduce the marginal costs.
Treatment of input water and pond cleaning can re-
duce the prevalence and impact of external patho-
gens and pollutants. Currently, un¢ltered river
water is pumped into ponds. Filtering will reduce
the risk of pathogens and reduce the frequency of dis-
eases and fouling from dead ¢sh. Filtering can be car-
ried out when water is ¢rst pumped into the pond, as
well as throughout the grow-out cycle and when the
pond is emptied. However, a major deterrent is the
cost of installing ¢lters, making this a relatively
expensive, and for the majority of farmers, unviable
option.
Treatment and re-use of e¥uent streams
The treatment and re-use of e¥uent streams include
both the treatment and the re-use of the sludge and
the treatment and re-use of wastewater. The costs of
these options are relatively low, provided that land is
available.
Desiccated sludge removed from sedimentation
ponds can be reused in agriculture. Sedimentation
ponds collect runo¡ and allow soil and debris to settle
out, thereby avoiding the discharge of water that con-
tains suspended solids in excess of water quality dis-
charge standards (Caldwell 2008). Despite being
required in national legislation, currently o10% of
¢sh farms have sedimentation ponds, usually be-
cause of the relatively large area of land necessary
for their construction (Hoa 2008). For sedimentation
ponds to be applied more widely, improved systems
for the treatment and re-use of sludge and waste-
water are needed.
Our laboratory experiments show that sludge from
wastewater settles quickly (Anh & Mai 2009a). In1h,
the sludge volume can be reduced to o20% of its ori-
ginal volume. For this reason, sedimentation ponds
can be considered to be an e¡ective and simple way
to reduce pollution of sludge. After 1h of sedimenta-
tion, the supernatant still contains most of the nitro-
gen and phosphorus present in the wastewater. In
general, the sludge at the bottom of the sedimenta-
tion pond requires further desiccation in order to
118 Aquaculture Research r 2010 Blackwell Publishing Ltd, Aquaculture Research, 42, 108^128
Aquaculture Research, 2010, 42, 108–128
make re-use possible. Currently, some farmers in An
Giang and Can Tho provinces have used the desic-
cated sludge for levelling low land areas. Some farm-
ers have placed it in fruit gardens with mango,
longan and other fruits (Anh & Mai 2009b). The re-
use of desiccated sludge resulted in improved yields
and reduced number of insects. Importantly, it also
appeared to be easy to implement for farmers, at low
costs. Nevertheless, more research is needed on the
practical and long-term aspects of treatment and re-
use of sludge.
There are many methods for the treatment and re-
use of wastewater. In general, the selection of treat-
ment technologies depends on the characteristics of
the wastewater, e¥uent requirements, available land
and the demands with respect to energy and chemi-
cal use. In the case of the water exchange from Pan-
gasius ponds, the treatment technology has to ¢t
with the high volume of wastewater and the low con-
centration of pollutants and be manageable in the
rural area. For these reasons, the methods of waste-
water treatment should be simple, with limited use of
mechanized equipment and chemicals. Although
large areas of land are needed, wetland ¢ltration
methods are considered to be the most technically
and economically feasible options for the Mekong
Delta (Dan et al. 2008).
Constructed wetlands represent a natural treat-
ment system based on biological symbiosis between
macrophytes and microorganisms (bacteria, fungi,
algae) and their interactions with the soil (Schulz
2003). Schulz (2003) shows that subsurface horizon-
tal-£ow constructed wetlands, consisting of a coarse
sand bed with emergent macrophytes, can be used
for the treatment of e¥uent of aquaculture £ow-
through systems applying hydraulic retention times
of 1.5, 2.5 and 7.5 h. The treatment e⁄ciencies of TSS
and COD were in the range of 96^97% and 64^74%,
respectively, and appeared to be independent of hy-
draulic load. The removal rates of total nitrogen and
total phosphorus were 21^42% and 49^69%, respec-
tively, showing lower e⁄ciencies at decreasing resi-
dence times. Clogging phenomena of the sand bed at
high TSS loading rates (9^73 g TSS m  2 day  1) were
expected, but were not observed during the 6 months
the experiments lasted.
Compared with conventional treatment methods,
constructed wetlands tend to be simple, inexpensive
(where a su⁄cient supply of ¢lter bed material is
available) and environmentally friendly. Constructed
wetlands also provide food and habitat for wildlife
and create pleasant landscapes. The disadvantage of
r 2010 The Authors
Aquaculture Research, 2010, 42, 108^128 Water pollution by Pangasius production in the Mekong Delta P T Anh et al.
this technology is the need for a large area of land at
low loading rates. If hydraulic retention times in the
order of 6^8 h are used, as applied by Schulz (2003),
they would be more suitable for treating e¥uent from
Pangasius ponds, given that the land requirement
would be relatively modest.
Another option for more optimal re-use of waste-
water is changes to the discharge design. Wastewater
from ¢sh ponds usually contains nutrients and or-
ganic substances. Therefore, re-use of this waste-
water in agriculture for irrigation and fertilization
can reduce environmental pollution. It can also save
production costs when wastewater replaces the use
of synthetic fertilizers. This is turn reduces energy
use and emissions of greenhouse gases during the
production of synthetic fertilizers, such as N2O and
CO2 (IPCC 2006). For the development of irrigation
systems, the investment costs can be considerable.
However, in most parts of the Mekong Delta, irriga-
tion systems are already available and any additional
operational costs for including wastewater from Pan-
gasius would be relatively low.
Optimization of the discharge design is needed for
better re-use of wastewater. It is necessary to study
irrigation and drainage systems that can combine
aquaculture farming with agricultural production
and not pollute the environment. These methods
can be applied in regions where su⁄cient crop land
surrounds the aquaculture activities. It is of utmost
importance to gain insights into the impact of the
treatment and re-use methods on pathogens from
Pangasius ponds to avoid the transmission of the dis-
ease to other ponds. A good plan for wastewater and
sediment discharge ensures that the wastewater does
not return directly to the river or over£ow to another
system.
Two examples of such systems are evident in An
Giang province. First, a low-cost technology dis-
charge design has been developed by the An Giang
Fisheries Association (AFA), which has successfully
combined Pangasius farming with rice cultivation,
yielding two crops per year. In this system, waste-
water from Pangasius ponds was used to irrigate the
rice ¢elds, reducing the need for fertilizer use. This
system has been applied with success for more than
3 years by several farmers in My Thoi, Khanh Hoa in
Long Xuyen City (Quyen 2008). A series of additional
bene¢ts have also been observed such as using the
water for alternative aquaculture species (Van 2007)
and watering Indian taro ¢elds (Diep 2007).
Second, a pilot study was developed through an
IDRC-funded project in farms in Hoa Lac Village,
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Aquaculture Research r 2010 Blackwell Publishing Ltd, Aquaculture Research, 42, 108^128
Chau Phu district. In this project, wastewater from
di¡erent ¢sh ponds is discharged into the common ir-
rigation system (Anh et al. 2010). The wastewater
then passes through rice ¢elds and is discharged into
the environment with a continuous £ow. An analysis
of this £ow showed that BOD5,TSS, total nitrogen and
total phosphorus decreased signi¢cantly. In addition,
all rice farmers who use this system agree that the
rice grows very well, with a high production, and
that large amounts of fertilizers are saved (Anh et al.
2010) (Table 4).
Results: Pangasius frozen fillet
processing
System de¢nition
In Vietnam, almost all Pangasius processing indus-
tries are located close to Pangasius farming areas in
An Giang, Can Tho, Dong Thap and Vinh Long pro-
vinces in the Mekong Delta. The most common ex-
port product is frozen ¢llets, for which the Pangasius
is processed into block quick frozen (BQF) or indivi-
dual quick frozen (IQF) forms. We may distinguish
four sub-systems in the ¢lleting processing of both
BQF and IQF: (1) pre-treatment (2) ¢lleting of ¢sh, (3)
trimming of ¢llet and (4) freezing, packing and sto-
rage (Fig. 6). We refer to these as processing subsys-
tems (Fig. 7). Two other sub-systems not included in
our analysis are (5) ice production for chilling the
Pangasius during the process and (6) cleaning in all
the steps during and after processing.
Figure 7 shows the typical method of the frozen ¢l-
let processing phase into either BQF or IQF forms.
After the ¢sh are transported from the pond to the
factory by boat, they are (1) weighed, classi¢ed and
soaked in basins with chloride (2^10 ppm) for clean-
ing and temporary paralysis, and (2) slaughtered and
soaked in basins with chloride (0.5^1ppm). The
chloride ranges are reportedly in line with HACCP-
based sector standards (MOFI 1998a, b) and re£ect
the optimal range of concentrations to apply. Water
is exchanged once per tonne of raw ¢sh in steps 1
and 2. Filleting of ¢sh is also carried out in two steps.
(3) The ¢sh are ¢rst ¢lleted under the water tap and
washed in three basins with chloride (2^10 ppm)
with a water exchange frequency of once per 10 bas-
kets (100^150 kg of ¢sh basket  1). Next, the skin will
be taken o¡ from the ¢llet (4) and collected for use in
other processing systems. Trimming of ¢llets starts
with (5) weighting ¢llets to obtain 5 kg basket  1, re-
forming (i.e. removal of remaining fat, bones, skin
119
Water pollution by Pangasius production in the Mekong Delta P T Anh et al.
Pre-treatment
Filleting of fish
Trimming of fillet
Freezing, packing and storage
Figure 7 Processing of fresh Pangasius into frozen ¢llets (as block or individual).
and red parts) and washing in basins with chloride
(2^10 ppm). The water exchange frequency is once
per 500 baskets. Next, the ¢llets undergo a ¢rst
check, and are weighed and classi¢ed with respect
to size and colour (6). The surplus parts of the ¢sh
are removed and the ¢llets are tested for parasites
(7). The ¢llets are then weighed into baskets of 10 kg
and washed to remove the remaining fat and frag-
mented parts in water with chloride (2^10 ppm). Dur-
ing this step, water is also changed once per 500
baskets (8). The ¢llets are then treated with a solution
in order to limit water loss from the ¢sh and optimize
the form of ¢llets (9). After that, the ¢llets are graded
and checked with respect to colour and size (10), and
washed in a basin with chloride (3^5 ppm). Finally,
freezing, packaging and storage start with the
actual freezing to BQF or IQF and re-icing (11), after
which the product can be packed and stored in a
cold storage room (12). Overall, each kg of either
120 Aquaculture Research r 2010 Blackwell Publishing Ltd, Aquaculture Research, 42, 108^128
Aquaculture Research, 2010, 42, 108–128
(1) Receiving, weighing, 1st soaking
(2) Slaughtering, 2nd soaking
(3) Filleting, 1st washing
(4) Cutting off the skin
(5) Weighing, reforming, 2nd washing
(6) 1st checking, weighing, classify in
color and size
(7) Cutting surplus part and parasite
testing
(8) Weighing, 3rd washing
(9) Grading
(10) Classifying in color and size,
checking, 4th washing
(11) Freezing
(12) Packing and storage
BQF or IQF product uses an average of 2.6 kg of fresh
Pangasius.
Within the six sub-systems that comprise ¢llet pro-
cessing, we identify eight key activities, of which four
cause water pollution: (1) water use and discharge,
(2) blood removal, (3) fat removal (4) and removal of
small fragments (Fig. 8). However, it should be noted
that there are other environmental problems asso-
ciated with Pangasius production. For instance, a re-
latively large amount of electricity is used for freezing
and ice production.We are aware of these other envir-
onmental pressures caused by the processing indus-
try. However, we limit our analysis to the impacts of
wastewater.
Assessment of environmental pressure
Wastewater generated from ¢sh processing contains
organic material in the form of oils, blood, proteins
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Aquaculture Research, 2010, 42, 108^128 Water pollution by Pangasius production in the Mekong Delta P T Anh et al.

and suspended solids, as well as potentially high Water pollution

levels of phosphates and nitrates. To assess the poten-
The volumes of water use and wastewater (Indicators
tial environmental impact, we identi¢ed the follow-
3.1 and 3.2) are calculated from the survey data for
ing indicators: the volume of water use, the volume
di¡erent steps in the process. The inventory included
of wastewater generated and the BOD, COD,TSS, total
various activities, such as the amount of water used
nitrogen, total phosphorus and coliforms contents of
in each soaking and washing basin, inputs of raw
the wastewater (Table 5). In the following, these indi-
material and ¢llet production and water for cleaning.
cators are investigated and, if possible, quanti¢ed.
The average water use per tonne of raw ¢sh found in
This is in part based on data from three di¡erent Pan-
three factories with di¡erent capacities ranged from
gasius processing factories in An Giang province col-
6.2 to 12.7 m3 (see Fig. 9). These data are reasonable if
lected in 2006 and 2007. These factories do not yet
compared with the ¢gures of Jesperson, Christiansen
apply cleaner production technologies in their pro-
and Hummelmose (2000), who calculated 5^11m3 of
duction process.

Sub- system Activities Pollutants Effects

Electricity use Other effects

Electricity
production Pre-
treatment
Water use and Water pollution
discharge
Water Surplus
Filleting
supply chloride
of fish Chloride use
treatment

BOD, COD,
Blood removal TSS,
Chloride Trimming Odor
Nitrogen,
production of fillets phosphorus,
Fat removal

Large Organic Solid

Freezing Removal of waste  by
PE bag organic
packing heads, bones, products
production fragments
and organs, tissues,
storing skin, large
fragments and
Plastic unwanted fillet
string Ice
production production Removal of small
fragments

Carton box Use of PE bags,

Inorganic
production Cleaning plastic strings,
solid waste
carton boxes

Figure 8 Schematic overview of Pangasius frozen ¢llet production and its environmental impact; bold lines indicate the
system boundary; bold system elements are included in the analysis.

Table 5 Indicators for water pollution caused by Pangasius processing

Environmental issues Indicator number Indicators Unit

Water pollution 3.1 Volume of water use m3

3.2 Volume of wastewater m3
3.3 BOD content of wastewater mg L  1
3.4 COD content of wastewater mg L  1
3.5 TSS content of wastewater mg L  1
3.6 Total nitrogen concentration mg L  1
3.7 Total phosphorus concentration mg L  1
3.8 Number of coliforms MNP/100 mL

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Aquaculture Research r 2010 Blackwell Publishing Ltd, Aquaculture Research, 42, 108^128 121
Water pollution by Pangasius production in the Mekong Delta P T Anh et al.
water use per tonne of raw white ¢sh and 5^8 m3 for
oily ¢sh. Based on our calculation, the total water use
for 1128 000 tonnes of Pangasius in 2008 is then es-
timated to be between 7 and 14 million m3.
Fish processing industries in Vietnam have to es-
tablish their own wastewater treatment systems for
a range of pollutants including BOD, COD, TSS, total
nitrogen, total phosphorus and coliforms (Indicators
3.3^3.8). According to the Vietnamese Environmental
Law, they are not allowed to discharge untreated was-
tewater into rivers or canals. However, not all compa-
nies apply e¡ective wastewater treatments. In one of
the companies that we surveyed, the daily waste-
water was 800 m3, while the wastewater treatment
capacity was 500 m3 day  1. This means that about
300 m3 of untreated wastewater is discharged di-
rectly into the surrounding rivers and canals per day.
Research from other countries has indicated that
pollutants from ¢sh processing show a considerable
range, for example, from 100 to 200 000 mg L  1 for
BOD and up to 120 000 mg L  1 for suspended solids
(Islam et al. 2004). Nutrients such as nitrogen and
phosphorus may be absent or so high that biological
treatment becomes di⁄cult. There were also consid-
erable di¡erences between the three Pangasius pro-
cessing factories that we sampled in terms of water
use, processing techniques and in how wastewater
was handled. Because of this variability, we supple-
mented data from measurements in the three Vietna-
mese factories with information from the literature.
Pollutant loading in wastewater of ¢lleting white ¢sh
reported by UNEP (2000) is relatively high compared
with what we measured in the three processing in-
dustries in Vietnam. The results presented in Table 6
Water input Water distribution
water
2.8 – 5.7 m3
water
Fresh water
1.2 – 2.5 m3
6.2 – 12.7 m3
Water + ice
1.3 – 2.7 m3
Ice production
0.5 m3 Water + ice
0.2 – 0.4
Water
0.7 – 1.4 m3
Figure 9 Water balance for the processing of one tonne of Pangasius fresh ¢sh.
122 Aquaculture Research r 2010 Blackwell Publishing Ltd, Aquaculture Research, 42, 108^128
Aquaculture Research, 2010, 42, 108–128
are therefore synthesized from Jesperson et al. (2000),
Caravan (1991) and our measurements. In the calcu-
lations, we take into account the highest loads. Fol-
lowing Jesperson et al. (2000), the highest loads for
¢lleting oily ¢sh are for BOD: 50 kg tonne  1 of ¢sh,
COD: 85 kg tonne  1, total nitrogen: 2.5 kg tonne  1
and total P: 0.3 kg tonne  1. The TSS level was taken
from our measurement and Caravan (1991). Para-
meters such as pH and total coliforms are not avail-
able from the literature. We therefore used our own
measurements and found a maximum wastewater
generation of 12.7 m3 per tonne of ¢sh.
When compared with the Vietnamese standard for
industrial wastewater discharging into the receiving
water, which is used for transport, aquaculture and
irrigation, all parameters in the wastewater from
Pangasius processing are very high. They range from
three times (for the total nitrogen content) to more
than 20 times (for COD, BOD and total coliforms)
higher than the national Vietnamese standards.
Pollution by unit of production
Table 7 presents the overall pollution per tonne of
fresh ¢sh, and for the total Mekong Delta. The latter
is based on a maximum wastewater production per
tonne of ¢llet ¢sh processing of 12.7 m3 and
1128 000 tonnes of Pangasius processing in the Me-
kong Delta in 2008. Based on these ¢gures, we esti-
mate the total pollutant load in Mekong Delta from
Pangasius processing in 2008 to be approximately
56 ktonnes BOD year  1; 96 ktonne COD year  1;
17 ktonneTSS year  1;3 ktonne total nitogen year  1;
and 338 tonne total P year  1. If we compare these
Water output
Pre-treatment
Filleting of fish Wastewater
6.16 -12.66 m3
Trimming of fillets
In the products
Freezing, packing 0.04 m3
and storage
Cleaning and water
lost
r 2010 The Authors
Aquaculture Research, 2010, 42, 108^128 Water pollution by Pangasius production in the Mekong Delta P T Anh et al.

loads to the total river loads of TSS, total nitogen and
total phosphorus in the Mekong of 380 806 Gg year  1
(Seitzinger, Harrison, Dumont, Beusen & Bouwman
2005), we ¢nd that Pangasius processing accounts
for o1% of the total TSS, nitrogen and phosphorus.
To calculate the total water pollution per tonne of
frozen ¢llet product, we summarize the results from
Tables 3 and 7 into Fig.10.We base this calculation on
the assumption that 2.6 tonnes of fresh ¢sh is needed
to produce 1tonne of a frozen ¢llet product (see ‘Sys-
tem de¢nition’). From this, we estimate the average
estimated pollutants’s load for producing 1tonne of
Pangasius frozen ¢llet to be about 740 kg BOD,
1020 kg COD, 2050 kg TSS, 106 kg nitrogen and 27 kg
phosphorus.
Our results also show that wastewater from Pan-
gasius ponds is a relatively larger source of water pol-
lution than processing, contributing 60^90% to the
total loadings of pollutants to the Mekong Delta from
Pangasius production. Sludge from ¢sh ponds and
wastewater from processing facilities have relatively
high contents of pollutants, but because of their rela-
tively small volumes, these waste streams only con-
tribute 3^27% of the total pollution.
Reduction options
Pangasius processing consumes large quantities of
water and discharges signi¢cant quantities of organ-
ic material, both as e¥uent and as solid waste. How-
ever, there is relatively little use of hazardous
substances and most of the solid waste is organic ma-
terial from the ¢sh, which can be recycled in animal
feed industries. The following reviews water pollu-
tion reduction technologies falling under the cate-
gories of cleaner production technology and second
wastewater treatment plants.
Cleaner production technologies
Water pollution can be diminished by reducing water
consumption, reducing pollutant loadings of ¢sh pro-

Table 6 Composition of wastewater from Pangasius processing factories

Indicators Unit Value Sources TCVN 5945-1995, B

pH – 6.8–8 1 5.5–9
TSS mg L  1 1190 1, 2 50
COD mg L  1 6692 3 100
BOD5 mg L  1 3937 3 50
Total nitrogen mg L  1 197 3 60
Total phosphorus mg L  1 24 4 6
Total coliforms MNP 100 mL  1 43  104 1 104

Source: (1) This study; (2) Caravan (1991); (3) calculated following Jesperson et al. (2000).
TCVN 5945 ^ 1995, Vietnamese standard for industrial wastewater discharging into the receiving water which use for transport,
aquaculture, irrigation ^ type B (for water supply source ^ Type A).

Table 7 Pollution caused by processing of Pangasius to frozen ¢llets in the Mekong Delta

Measured Per tonne of fresh fishw Total for Mekong Deltaz

No Indicators Value Unit Value Unit Value Unit

1 1
3.1 Water use 12.7 3
m tonne 12.7 3
m tonne 14325600 m3 year  1
3.2 Wastewater production 12.7 m3 tonne  1 12.7 m3 tonne  1 14325600 m3 year  1
3.3 BOD content 3937 mg L  1 50 kg tonne  1 56400000 kg year  1
3.4 COD content 6692 mg L  1 85 kg tonne  1 95880000 kg year  1
3.5 TSS content 1190 mg L  1 15 kg tonne  1 16920000 kg year  1
3.6 Total N content 197 mg L  1 2.5 kg tonne  1 2820000 kg year  1
3.7 Total P content 24 mg L  1 0.3 kg tonne  1 338400 kg year  1

From Table 6.
wCalculated assuming 12.7 m3 wastewater per tonne of fresh ¢sh.
zAssuming a total production of 1128 ktonne of Pangasius fresh ¢sh in ponds.

r 2010 The Authors

Aquaculture Research r 2010 Blackwell Publishing Ltd, Aquaculture Research, 42, 108^128 123
Water pollution by Pangasius production in the Mekong Delta P T Anh et al.
250
200
Pollutants' load (kg / ton)
150
100
50
0 cesses are usually used in conjunction with physical
BOD/10 COD/10 TSS/10 Total N Total P
Figure 10 Water pollution by the production of frozen
Pangasius ¢llet. The graph shows pollution from ponds
and processing. Units: kg pollutant per tonne of ¢llet.
cessing e¥uent and by end of pipe treatment of was-
tewater. Fish processing factories in Vietnam have
been encouraged to apply cleaner production tech-
nology by the government and international agen-
cies, with little success (Mitchell 2006). For reducing
water consumption and pollutant load of ¢sh proces-
sing e¥uent, there are several cleaner production
opportunities through improved management tech-
niques and technology. The cleaner production
options include good housekeeping, process optimi-
zation, raw material substitution, new technology
and new product design (Ashford, Clarke, De Larder-
el, Oldenburg, De Hoo & Kryger 1994). Thrane et al.
(2009) have shown that most of the easiest improve-
ments in water quality can be gained through better
housekeeping practices and mainly through more ef-
¢cient cleaning procedures. For instance, in one Pan-
gasius factory, the installation of a high-pressure
washer required an investment of about US$1000,
while the savings were about US$1900 per year
(Dan, Visvanathan & Kumar 2003). Large reductions
can be made by making cleaning sta¡ aware of water
consumption, for example by encouraging them to
register their water consumption after each day. This
only requires an investment in a few water meters, a
piece of paper and a pencil.
Other opportunities for reducing the pollutant
load of ¢sh processing wastewater principally focus
on avoiding the loss of raw materials and products to
the e¥uent stream. This can be achieved in several
ways such as by following good practices in ¢lleting
and trimming, including the use of sharper knives,
not adding small fragments of ¢sh to wastewater
124
Aquaculture Research, 2010, 42, 108–128
£ows and collecting waste in a dry state using dry
Processing cleaning methods. Additional bene¢ts from improved
wastewater housekeeping include optimization of existing pro-
Sludge cesses.
Farming
Wastewater Wastewater treatment
Wastewater treatment methods in the ¢sh processing
industry are based on a range of physical, chemical
and/or biological processes (Rollo¤n 1999; Hung
2004; European Commission 2006; Sridang, Kai-
man, Pottier & Wisniewski 2006). Biological pro-
and chemical processes, with the main objective of
reducing the organic and nutrient contents of waste-
water (United Nations 2003). The application of anae-
robic biological techniques has been popular in the
¢sh processing industry, with high COD removal e⁄-
ciencies (75^80%) at volumetric loading rates of 3^
4 kg COD m^3 day (Balsev-Olesen & Lyngaard 1990;
Mendez, Soto & Lena 1992). Hung (2004) concluded
that 60^70% of the biogas produced by a balanced
and well-functioning anaerobic system consists of
methane, with the rest being mostly carbon dioxide
and minor amounts of nitrogen and hydrogen. This
biogas is an ideal fuel for producing low-cost electri-
city and providing steam for use in the stirring and
heating of disinfection tanks. In addition, the reduc-
tion in methane renders these technologies eligible
for cleaner development mechanism (CDM) funding
under the Kyoto protocol. In a CDM programme,‘car-
bon credit’ represents reduction in the amount of
greenhouse gas emissions from an emission source.
Carbon credits can be claimed by issuing certi¢ed
emission reductions (CERs) through advanced anae-
robic wastewater treatment (Show & Lee 2008).
Discussion and conclusions
The results presented in this paper are the ¢rst to sys-
tematically estimate the extent and nature of water
pollution from Pangasius farming and processing on
the environment of the Mekong Delta. Our results
from Pangasius grow-out farms show that pollutant
loadings from wastewater and sludge in order to pro-
duce1tonne of Pangasius ¢sh are 201and 35 kg BOD,
247 and 59 kg COD, 557 and 217 kg TSS, 37 and 1.5 kg
total nitrogen, 9 and 0.8 kg total phosphorus. Our re-
sults from processing Pangasius into frozen ¢llets
show that emissions contributing towards water pol-
lution for producing 1tonne of Pangasius ¢llet pro-
duct are 130 kg BOD, 221kg COD, 39 kg TSS, 6.5 kg
r 2010 The Authors
Aquaculture Research r 2010 Blackwell Publishing Ltd, Aquaculture Research, 42, 108^128
Aquaculture Research, 2010, 42, 108^128 Water pollution by Pangasius production in the Mekong Delta P T Anh et al.
nitrogen and 0.8 kg phosphorus. Scaling these re-
sults up, we estimate the overall pollution by Panga-
sius production as the sum of emissions from
wastewater, sludge and processing wastewater for
1tonne of ¢llet product and analysed the relative
shares of these sources in the overall pollutants’ load-
ing. We conclude that the overall emissions asso-
ciated with the production of 1tonne of Pangasius
frozen ¢llet product amount to 740 kg BOD, 1020 kg
COD, 2050 kg TSS, 106 kg nitrogen and 27 kg phos-
phorus. Wastewater from ¢sh ponds is the largest
source of water pollution, contributing between
60% and 90% of pollutant loading in wastewater
from the Pangasius industry. The results indicate that
sludge from ¢sh ponds and wastewater from ¢sh pro-
cessing have a relatively high pollutant content,
which may lead to severe local environmental pro-
blems. Nevertheless, we estimate that the overall
Pangasius production is a minor source of nutrients
in the Mekong river, accounting for less than 1% of
the total TSS, nitrogen and phosphorus loads.
Based on our review of available technologies to
mitigate the impacts from farming and processing of
Pangasius, we propose two approaches for reducing
water pollution problems. First, we recommend
waste prevention and minimization in ¢sh ponds, in-
cluding a range of techniques for the reduction of
water use, feed use, chemicals and drug use and
treatment of input water and good practices of farm
cleaning. Second, we suggest the treatment and re-
use of e¥uent streams. For sludge, we support exist-
ing policies that promote the construction of sedi-
ment ponds, but also suggest further consideration
of the re-use of desiccated sediments in agriculture
where appropriate. For wastewater treatment, we re-
commend the construction of wetlands ^ either on
individual farms or jointly in farming communities.
We recognize that the costs associated with most
of the water treatment strategies listed above are a
deterrent to smaller producers. However, we also ar-
gue that many of these approaches are relatively in-
expensive, given recent high estimates of farm
turnover (see e.g. Phuong et al. 2007; Loc et al. 2010).
The challenge is to demonstrate to farmers the busi-
ness case for investing in approaches such as the re-
duction of chemicals and drugs, sludge treatment in
sedimentation ponds and constructed wetlands and
the re-use of wastewater through existing irrigation
systems. In addition, the optimization of discharge
design can be implemented for better re-use of waste-
water in Pangasius processing by applying cleaner
production technologies and investing in wastewater
r 2010 The Authors
Aquaculture Research r 2010 Blackwell Publishing Ltd, Aquaculture Research, 42, 108^128
treatment plants. Several low-cost cleaner produc-
tion opportunities are currently applicable to small,
medium and large processing factories including im-
proved management techniques and low-tech tech-
nologies such as the application of anaerobic
wastewater treatment, which have the added bene¢t
of potentially generating alternative income streams
from carbon credit schemes. Given the attention that
is being paid to the sustainability of Pangasius,
further research is urgently needed inVietnam to es-
tablish more exact costs associated with each of the
technologies proposed.
Acknowledgments
We gratefully acknowledge Van Lang University, De-
partment of Environmental Technology and Manage-
ment and Wageningen University for ¢nancial and
technical support; several students and assistants from
Van Lang University and SMARTCHOICE Company
participated in the preparatory work for the study.
Our special thanks are due to the famers, technicians
and leaders from the Pangasius processing industries,
who provided us with the data used in this study.
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