IGUA - ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT INDEX OF WATER QUALITY: proposal for an index for the evaluation of quality of the water abstracted from the supply in Porto Velho
environmental management; DSPIR framework, water resources; water
quality; supply
The objective of this work was to construct the IGUA - Index of Environmental Management of
Water Quality that aims to evaluate the quality of the water collected for the public supply.
Based on the DPSIR conceptual framework, IGUA uses 14 environmental management
indicators, unlike the water quality indexes widely used in the literature, which use water
analysis. The hypothesis was that, in addition to assessing the water quality of the current
scenario, the IGUA also allows projections of future scenarios to verify the consequences on
water quality of response actions and / or characteristics of the projected scenario. After the
construction of the IGUA, its application was carried out in the case study in Porto Velho, as
the city has always been precarious in terms of sanitation and needs to expand its supply of
public supply. For this, the better the quality of the water abstracted, the lower the technology
required for its treatment and the lower the cost of implantation. The obtained results showed
that the IGUA calculated for the Madeira River, where water is collected for the public supply
of Porto Velho, in the current scenario was very close to its IQA (Water Quality Index) obtained
in a study, validating the methodology used for the construction of IGUA. For the current
scenario, the IGUA was classified in the good category and in the projected scenarios, it got
worse in the trend scenario (going from good to bad), it remained in the same category in the
management scenario and obtained an improvement in the conservation scenario (from good
to excellent). As a result, it can be estimated that, with the worsening of water quality in the
trend scenario, there would be a 33% more cost for the implementation of the new Water
Treatment Station necessary for the universalization of the water supply in Porto Velho. Thus,
the hypothesis of the research was confirmed, its objectives were reached and it was concluded
that the IGUA can be applied in other cases, because it allows adaptations in its calculation by
changing the weights of the indicators, becoming another alternative tool for planning aid and
decision making.