Pesticide Runoff to the Caribbean Sea Nicaragua - Establishment of an Environmental Monitoring System

Abstract

Nicaragua’s economy has long been based on a structure of agro-exportation mainly of raw materials. Since the cotton boom of the last decades until now, there has persisted in the country a culture of application of considerable amount of pesticides with different characteristics of toxicity and persistence, which are released to the drainage basins in runoff to surface and ground water resources and coastal zones of the Caribbean and Pacific coasts. There is scarce information in Nicaragua about the dynamics of these contaminants in the ecosystems of the Caribbean coast. For this reason a coastal monitoring program has been established with the main goals to evaluate the pesticide runoff and to generate environmental information that help to determine sources, causes and promote suitable agricultural practices that may result in a reduction of agricultural pesticide runoff to the Caribbean Sea. A first study for the establishment of the baseline was carried out in three hydrographic basins and coastal zones of the Nicaraguan Caribbean Coast, in which pesticide residues of persistence (legacy) and modern pesticides were analyzed and in a second phase in marine zones. The determination of pesticides residues was achieved by means of innovative analytical techniques based on gas chromatography with detectors of electron capture, thermo-ionic specific and mass spectrometry. A monitoring system was established that generates information about the degree of contamination in the selected hydrographic basins, coastal and marine zones, which contribute to the development of suitable strategies directed to reduce pesticides runoff to the Nicaraguan-Caribbean Sea.

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5377/uyc.v5i8.316

Universidad y Ciencia No 8 Año 5 2010 27-32