Qualidade da Água Potável Consumida na Cidade do Salvador - Bahia

Abstract

The research talks about the drinking water which is consumed in Salvador city and presents the main health consequences of the contaminants that can be found in the water and the prevention measurements more suitable to remove them. Contaminations which can be found in the water sources come from the growth industrial activities, synthetic agriculture compounds, domestic sewage and waste water that run-off without a proper treatment. The methodology used included drinking water analyzes consumed in Salvador city, an evaluation of Brazilian legislation, being demonstrated that, even when the legal parameters in the laws are fulfilled, it can not warranty that drinking this water will not produce serious health problems in the people in a short, medium and long period of time. The results show that people who were evaluated do not have enough basic knowledge about the risks of water contaminants and they do not know what to do to minimize their consequences. Even knowing that the concentration of the drinking water contaminants change a lot from one day to another, it was adopted modern scientific methodology when the water analyzes from the municipal water supply company were evaluated. The same methodology was adopted in the well water samples from a company in the Petrochemical Complex in Camaçari area and from mineral water samples which were sent to specialized laboratories. Many contaminants in the water were mentioned and evaluated under toxicological standards using maximum values established in the Brazilian, United States and European legislation (World Health Organization). Additive and synergetic effects of the drinking water contaminants besides the factor named individual susceptibility were cited as essential conditions in the real risk assessment of the contaminants concentration and mixtures of them present in the drinking water in study. It was presented point of use treatment techniques that make possible to remove organic, inorganic, biological and radioactive contaminants from drinking water. Doing that, people can minimize as much as possible the contamination risks from water sources, keeping the health in high levels. Yet it was done suggestions that aim to reduce or eliminate the contaminants of our drinking water sources, by federal, state and municipal actions and direct collaboration of the citizens themselves. In front of the scientific aspects mentioned here, we concluded that as much the mineral water as the municipal water from the distribution network are not free of risks to the human consumption.