"Qualidade da água para consumo humano: bebedouros do campus Santa Mônica - UFU"

Abstract

The water is a fundamental natural resource for the planet and the main component of human cells. The water can carry pathogens, offering health risks, and this transmission can occur by different mechanisms, being the ingestion the most common. Thus, it is essential to monitor its quality and the parameters of potability, which include physical-chemical and microbiological analysis, in order to ensure the human health. In this context, the present study evaluated the quality of water in the drinking watercooler of two buildings (1B and 5RA) of the Santa Mônica Campus at Federal University of Uberlândia, according to the standards established by the Ministry of Health Ordinance No. 888 of 2021, which amends Annex XX of the Consolidation Ordinance No. 05 of 2017. The water quality of the two buildings were investigated through bacteriological analysis by the multiple tube technique and through physicochemical parameters: pH, color, turbidity, conductivity, dissolved solids and trace metals. The analyses were performed in triplicates over 24 weeks, and a total of 72 samples were analyzed. The results showed that 79.72% of the water samples examined presented parameters in conformity with the established standards. For the pH parameter, the values ranged from 5.07 to 6.13, with a general average of 5.62, being slightly inferior to the interval determined by the legislation (6.0>pH<9.5). The color parameter had an average of 6.85, and in six samples from the building 1B the value was above the maximum allowed limit (<15uc). The metals Fe, Cr and Ni presented values above the maximum allowed limit in one of the samples of the building 1B. The other parameters were in accordance with the legislation, with an average value of turbidity of 0.18NTU, conductivity of 64.55us/cm and dissolved solids of 43.89mg/L. In the bacteriological analysis, coliform growth was not identified in the confirmatory tests, indicating that this parameter is in accordance with the established standards. The data obtained demonstrated that, in general, the samples analyzed were in compliance with the legislation, indicating the potability of the water in the analyzed samples. However, some parameters (color, pH and metals) presented some values in disagreement with the recommended, indicating that periodic monitoring might be carried out in order to guarantee the water quality to the university community.