@techreport{LessmannGrueneberg2021, author = {Leßmann, Dieter and Gr{\"u}neberg, Bj{\"o}rn}, title = {Impacts of artisanal small-scale gold mining on Hkaung Tung Hka Chaung River and recommendations for the conservation of Indawgyi Lake/Myanmar}, doi = {10.26127/BTUOpen-5685}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:co1-opus4-56850}, year = {2021}, abstract = {Indawgyi Lake is one of the largest lakes in East Asia. Due to its habitat diversity and its great importance for international bird migration, it has the status of an UNESCO biosphere reserve. In the last decades, anthropogenic pressures on the lake due to increasing population numbers, overfishing and intensification of agriculture and forestry as well as to the impacts by artisanal small-scale gold mining in the catchment area have increased sharply. As a result of gold mining, lake inflows have very high suspended matter loads, both from the washing of gold-bearing sediments and from soil erosion as a result of the destruction of the floodplain and of the forest close to the river. The input of sediments and suspended matter from the Hkaung Tung Hka Chaung River has led to massive deposits of river sediments in the southern part of Indawgyi Lake within a few years. In the context of short-term investigations and a one-year monitoring close to the stream mouth, the extent of the suspended matter input from Hkaung Tung Hka Chaung River into Indawgyi Lake was estimated and heavy metal pollution concentrations of the suspended matter were measured as a basis for recommendations for the reduction of the pollution pressure on the lake. Sedimentation analyses showed that the river water was still very turbid even after 50 hours due to high concentrations of very small solids. In contrast, material in the size of sand grains settled completely after about ten hours. The clay fraction of the suspended matter was heavily contaminated by different heavy metals, including cadmium, copper, nickel, chromium and lead. The load of suspended matter was subject to strong fluctuations and showed no correlation with the discharge. The mean concentration of suspended matter was 9.6 g/L (as dry weight per volume of water). The daily dry matter load in Hkaung Tung Hka Chaung River varied between 2.3 and 2,900 t. The mean load was 359 t/d, with by far the largest amount being transported by the river during the rainy season during times of high discharge. That indicates that, in addition to direct inputs from mining activity, there was also suspended matter input from soil erosion and from the remobilization of river sediments. The estimates of the annual input into Indawgyi Lake came to an amount of about 133,000 t. This corresponds to a volume of the fresh matter between 0.26 and 0.4 million m³. The results show the urgent need for a control of the artisanal small-scale gold mining activities and for the building of sedimentation basins at Hkaung Tung Hka Chaung River to protect Indawgyi Lake with its highly valuable ecosystem.}, subject = {Indawgyi Lake; Artisanal small-scale gold mining; Pollution; Suspended matter; Indawgyi-See; Goldkleinbergbau; Schwebstoffe; Belastung; Indawgyi Lake; Goldbergbau; Wasserverschmutzung; Schwebstoff; Schwermetallbelastung}, language = {en} }