IGUA - ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT INDEX OF QUALITY OF WATER: proposal of an index for the evaluation of the quality of the abstracted water used in 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 newWater 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.