Abstract
Thousands of people living in semi-arid regions face problems of drought and loss of water quality. In addition, high incidence of acute diarrheal diseases related to water consumption has been responsible for a high number of deaths and high economic costs for human health. Many of the diseases can be caused by the presence of enterobacteria in reservoirs that serve for multiple purposes. This study aimed to confirm the presence of potentially harmful bacteria, which was highlighted in other articles, and to reveal non-identified genera by culture-dependent methods and pyrosequencing. Twenty-three genera of the Enterobacteriaceae family were detected, with emphasis on Escherichia genus and confirmation of the presence of species such as Salmonella enterica and Enterobacter cloacae. The abundance of heterotrophic prokaryotes and the physical and chemical data show an expected average for this type of environment due to the numbers historically presented in previous articles. The unprecedented detection of the presence of some potentially pathogenic species can alert and raise awareness of the populations that use stored water in the semi-arid regions. Consequently, as a result of the peculiar characteristics of reservoirs under this climate influence, there is a cosmopolitanism of enterobacteria that may be related to the alarming numbers of infections from Waterborne Diseases.
Highlights
Arid and semi-arid regions present a series of socioeconomic problems that are triggered by the environmental problem of water scarcity
Armando Ribeiro Gonçalves Dam is a eutrophic reservoir of multiple uses in a Brazilian semi-arid region (05°67’ S; 36°88’ W) with great water storage capacity (2.4 billion m3), and it is responsible for the water supply of 500 thousand people approximately
Water transparency was estimated using a Secchi disk (30 cm), and Total Phosphorus (TP) concentrations were estimated according to Valderrama (1981) and American Public Health Association (APHA), American Water Works Association (AWWA) and Water Environment Federation (WEF) (1998)
Summary
Arid and semi-arid regions present a series of socioeconomic problems that are triggered by the environmental problem of water scarcity. In these places, the irregularity of rains cause periods of drought up to six months per year. Climatic variations accentuated by periods of drought, as well as influences of urban development and the use of pesticides affect water quality and its availability. Manmade reservoirs are the main water sources for human consumption and domestic purposes. Many of these water supplies are destined to multiple uses such as electricity generation, irrigation and recreation (Sodré-Neto & Araújo, 2008)
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