Sistema de abastecimento de água na zona rural: um estudo de caso na comunidade Manoel João em Porto Nacional, Tocantins

Abstract

In view of public policies to promote quality water, when they do not satisfactorily serve rural communities in the right to access, the study in question aims to contribute in order to mitigate this inequality. The research aimed to improve the water supply for families in the Manoel João community, with the proposition of simplified treatment solutions for the water supply and its implementation costs. Therefore, it was necessary: the preliminary diagnosis of the community using socioeconomic data; the diagnosis of the water supply system in vogue by community families; the monitoring of water quality with sample collection campaigns for physicochemical and biological analyses according to potability parameters; and finally, improvements to the existing treatment system were recommended in accordance with the reality of the community. A research was then carried out with three phases: in the first, the Household Health Improvement Needs Survey was applied concomitantly with a script of subjective questions; in the second phase, the water treatment techniques currently applied by the families were listed, the existing water collection and distribution system was surveyed, campaigns were carried out to collect water samples according to potability parameters; and in the third phase, low-cost and economically viable treatment technologies were presented to solve the water supply problem in the community. In view of this, it was found that families do not treat water in order to guarantee their water security; it was found that the water distribution network is obsolete. Finally, treatment technologies such as: Multi-Step Filtration and The Alternative Solution for Water Treatment, propylene filters and disinfection, are the solutions that best fit the reality of the community. Of these, polypropylene filters are the most viable technology in the socioeconomic scenario today.