Estudio de la calidad del agua: caso de estudio del río Déleg - provincia del Cañar

Abstract

The study of the water quality in rivers is invaluable due to the importance of this natural resource and the benefit it provides to society. The exponential population growth coupled with the minimal safety and contamination regulations that exist today pose a grave and looming threat. One major risk is the loss of these rivers as a primary water supply, creating the need to turn to subterranean water aquifers, of which very little is known in these areas. This current project is meant to supplement the existing investigation, “Manejo Integral de la Calidad de Agua”, which is part of the VLIR program. For these reasons, it determined necessary and important to produce an updated diagnosis of the water quality in the river Déleg, in the Cañar province, through the application of the WQI (Water Quality Index) formulated by the Instituto Mexicano de Tecnología del Agua, with 18 physical, chemical, and microbiological parameters in 5 important stations in order to define usages which can be assigned to the resource; this study also evaluates the spatial and temporal variability of the water’s quality between september 2017 and december 2017, with 8 monitors. Results shows that the ICA index in the Déleg river varies between 56,02 and 72,06; which classify the river as having low contamination and the usages of the water along the river will be for farming, industry and animal trough