The absence of watershed management in Amazon inhabited areas has affected its
natural resources over the past years. For this reason, this study focuses on the social
and environmental aspects of 18 rural communities and the effects of wastewater
discharge originating from Bragança’s city on the water quality of the nearby Caeté
Estuary and its tributary, the Cereja River, located in the Caeté River basin. The adopted
methodology to characterize the socioeconomic profile and the living and dwelling
conditions was based on structured and semi-structured questionnaires applied to the
local population. The domestic trash production was quantified and a determination was
made of the composition of the trash, in some communities, from samples of around
20% of the residences. Water quality analyses of the main wells that supply the studied
communities were carried out based on the determination of physical and chemical
variables (turbidity, real color, apparent color, pH, temperature, dissolved iron and
dissolved nutrients) and bacteriological studies (termotolerant and total coliforms).
Field measurements (hydrological, hydrodynamic and-or microbiological variables)
were taken in the most urbanized zone from Caeté estuary and Cereja river to
characterise the water quality of those environments. The main environmental impacts
were identified, georreferenced, photographed, and mapped. Guidelines were proposed
for the effective management of the natural resources of the Caeté Basin by the
pertinent local authorities. The obtained results showed that the Caeté River basin has
approximately 2,207 rural families (9,573 inhabitants) and the majority of the
population has low income, low education and low living and dwelling conditions. The
services and infrastructure are inadequate and there is a lack of potable water, basic
sanitation, trash collection, school, medical assistance, etc. On the other hand,
Bragança´s city has more than 72,621 inhabitants living on an area of approximately 16
km², is one of the oldest colonial settlements of the Amazon region. Both studied rivers
receive large amounts of wastewater disposed by private households, hospitals,
workshops and fish processing companies and they have showed microbial
contamination. The lack of effective public policy has accentuated both environmental
and socio-economic problems. The authors suggest several measures to improve the
current situation, including: (i) the regulation of land use to reduce the environmental
impact of the economic sector; (ii) implementation of management programs for the
sustainable exploitation of natural resources (fish, crabs, clay, lumber); (iii) installation
of public services, in particular piped water and sanitation; (iv) better monitoring and
penalization of the illegal exploitation of natural resources.
|
