Micro watershed of River Angico, State of Paraíba: use of waters of inferior quality for human consumption

Abstract This work evaluates the quality of the surface and underground water for human consumption by users of the Paus Branco locality, in the micro watershed of the Angico river, in the semi-arid region of Paraíba state. The research was carried out over a period of 11 months, from May, 2003 to March, 2004 and included a survey of a total of 9 water sources (2 small dams, 5 tube wells with weather vanes and 2 shallow wells). The small dams presented the best physical and chemical characteristics for human consumption, except for the high concentration of iron, and the other sources exceeded the maximum value allowed by the Resolution 518/04 MS. The microbiological evaluation indicates that the tube wells PT1 and PT2 had 50 and 37.5% of the collected samples contaminated by thermotolerants coliformes, and therefore unsuitable for human consumption. The small dams and shallow wells presented the highest values of the microbiological parameters. Thus, no source of water had satisfactory sanitary conditions, therefore must be considered as risk for the public health.