Evaluación de la calidad de agua, mediante la aplicación del índice de calidad del agua NSF en la microcuenca del Guarango, parroquia Quingeo – Cuenca – Azuay

Abstract

The watershed of the Guarango is located in the rural parish of Quingeo, 30 km from the city of Cuenca, its area is approximately 1495 ha, and within this are the communities of Punta Hacienda, Rumipamba and Quinzhaloma. As the first point of this study, a baseline of the watershed was drawn up in which social and environmental aspects are detailed, it also includes the analysis and determination of physical, chemical and microbiological parameters of water in the main river; taking into account 9 parameters: pH, turbidity, dissolved oxygen, BOD5, phosphates, nitrates, total solids, temperature and fecal coliforms for comparison with the regulations and then the Water Quality Index of the National Sanitation Foundation (WQI – NSF) of the United States was calculated; for this, four monitoring campaigns were carried out between the months of November, December (2018) and January (2019), in four monitoring points located in the streams: Nonadel-Bayan, Rumipamba-Monjas, Guarango and river Salado. Then, environmental impacts were identified in the watershed, and a matrix of impact assessment was generated using the methodology developed by Conesa. The results obtained in the analysis of Water Quality Index in the watershed, show that the water quality is in a range of Good to Medium, in addition that the most significant environmental impacts in the study area were identified. Finally, prevention and mitigation projects are proposed for the environmental problems identified with the environmental assessment matrix in the Guarango watershed.