Abstract
The quality of drinking water and its health implications for school children were examined at schools in the Santarém region, Amazon, Brazil. In this region, the population is fully supplied by groundwater from the voluminous Alter do Chão aquifer. Drinking water samples from three schools in Santarem city and from one school at the rural Mojuí dos Campos town were subjected to microbiological and physicochemical compositional analyses. The health risk of human exposure to chemical compounds through water intake was also evaluated. The results indicated that most water samples were contaminated with total coliform and with E. coli, which could cause serious intestinal disorders for school children. Drinking water was acidic and most of the chemical element concentrations were within Brazilian water potability recommended levels. One exception was the high aluminium content in schools from Santarem served by shallower wells, suggesting that further epidemiological studies are necessary and the monitoring of exposed school children should not be discarded. Elevated nitrate concentrations were also noted in schools from Santarém with shallower wells, indicating lack of sanitation and the importance of periodic monitoring of drinking water to prevent adverse health effects. Quantification of human health risk indicated a hazard in schools served by shallower wells, with aluminium as the main pollutant, followed by nitrate. The results showed that most drinking water quality parameters are in accordance with Brazilian legislation. However, microbiological contamination, water acidity, aluminium and nitrate concentrations must be taken into consideration for local governments in order to prevent related diseases among school children.
Highlights
Water is essential to sustain life, and a satisfactory water supply must be available to the human population
The results showed the presence of heterotrophic bacteria in all samples whereas total coliforms were detected in 28 samples and E. coli in 16 samples
These results for drinking water quality from schools in Santarém and Mojuí dos Campos, Brazilian Amazon, allow us to make a series of conclusions and recommendations about how the quality of the water in this region should be managed
Summary
Water is essential to sustain life, and a satisfactory water supply must be available to the human population. Safety of the water supply is key to public health, especially for children, who generally require greater protection. School children can spend five to eight hours a day in public elementary schools in Brazil. In this sense, it is essential that this communal space presents favourable environmental conditions to ensure good health practices and quality of life for children. Adequate quality of drinking water is a human right (WHO, 2017). The supply of safe drinking water has been compromised by the absence of adequate sanitary infrastructure in some regions of developing countries like Brazil, where this vital resource is vulnerable to pollution. In the case of groundwater supply, over the past 20 years it has become increasingly apparent that groundwater sources are being contaminated by hazardous microbiological agents and chemicals derived from a variety of social, economic and urban activities; groundwater protection has become essential for governmental agencies (Palamuleni and Akoth, 2015; Llopis-González et al, 2014)
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