Avaliação da qualidade de águas de abastecimento urbano de Juazeirinho-PB: Águas superficiais

Abstract

Water is a fundamental resource for the existence of life on Earth, deserving attention in order to ensure that the water used for human consumption meets the standards of potability defined by the Ordinance 2.914/2011 of Brazilian Ministry of Health. The present study aimed to evaluate the physico-chemical and microbiological quality of water from 2 (two) schools, 1 (one) nursery school and the 1 (one) Municipal Hospital, city of Juazeirinho, Paraíba state, northernBrazil. The city has a water supply system, through a general network, operated by the Water and Sewage Company of Paraíba (Cagepa) and during the sampling period this supply was made fortnightly and complemented by kite- cars maintained by City Hall. Sampling occurred from March to December 2016, with the determination of temperature, pH, turbidity, electrical conductivity, fluoride, aluminum, free residual chlorine, heterotrophic bacteria, total coliforms and Escherichia coli (presence and absence). Data set was subjected to both descriptive statistical and analysis of variance (ANOVA). The water distributed to the population of the city of Juazeirinho does not meet the standards of potability established by Ordinance No. 2914/2011, particularly the standards for CRL, aluminum, pH and turbidity indicators. Regarding the microbiological indicators (counting of heterotrophic bacteria, determination of presence / absence of total coliforms and Escherichia coli) the situation is similar, since it was found that, in all the points, there was no compliance, being this violation attributed to the low concentration of Free residual chlorine in water. The water supply system, which is based on a lower tank fed by water distributed throughout the general network and other water, particularly those transported by tanker trucks, in addition to the poor infrastructure conditions, contributes in particular to the degradation of the quality of the water. Water that challenges the adoption of water quality control and surveillance actions.