Captações de água : o primeiro passo para a qualidade

Water is a natural resource essential to life. Lacking its access is a silent crisis that condemns a considerable part of Mankind to a life of poverty, vulnerability and insecurity. One must assure that each individual has reliable access to water, at reasonable price. 2/16 To overcome the water crisis is one of the main human development challenges in the beginning of the 21st century. Africa possesses some of the world’s largest rivers and lakes, as well as vast deserts. By its volume, river Congo is the second largest river in the world, just surpassed by the river Amazonas. Lake Tanganica contains the second largest freshwater volume in the world and lake Victoria has the second biggest surface area among the freshwater lakes. In what concerns water supply, recent studies estimate that one million new water abstraction boreholes in Africa will be needed to achieve the Millennium Development Goals until 2015. To assure the control and maintenance of water abstraction facilities is one of the first steps to protect human health from the negative effects of water contamination, by assuring its cleanness and quality. With this work one intends to systematize the reliability and quality requirements related to water intended for human consumption abstractions facilities, conservation and maintenance. One refers the failures caused by construction, the resources involved and the exploration of the facilities, mentioning the control and diagnosis methodologies, conservation and maintenance processes and common pathologies, as well as techniques for the rehabilitation of its capacities and quality. One balances the different implications that existing deficiencies may originate in the economy and in health of the involved populations.