Evidências entre a Qualidade das Bacias Hidrográficas e as Características dos Municípios de Minas Gerais

The quality, scarcity and allocation of Brazilian water resources are frequent concerns in the ongoing political debate. One way to contribute to this debate is to analyze and reconcile the quality of the water and the socioeconomic characteristics of some municipalities in the Minas Gerais state in 2010. This articulation allows highlighting some of the potential determinants that influence water quality of Minas Gerais. In order to reach this objective, the article uses the Water Quality Indicator, which, along with socioeconomic variables, allow to classify the municipalities through the articulation of two techniques: Principal Component Analysis and Cluster Analysis. The results show that water quality is influenced by vulnerability to poverty, illiteracy rate, mortality, urbanization, inadequate water and sewage treatment and life expectancy. In the Minas Gerais, the northern municipalities present the best results regarding water quality, but the lowest socio-economic development indexes. The southern region has a higher concentration of economic activities and, consequently, the worse indicators of water quality. Thus, it is perceived that the Water Quality deteriorates as the economic factors improve, evidencing the problem of the relation between the economic activities and the maintenance of the environmental quality.