SOCIAL CONDITIONS OF HEALTH, SANITATION AND QUALITY OF THE GROUNDWATER OF ITAPARICA AND VERA CRUZ, METROPOLITE REGION OF SALVADOR, BAHIA (BR)

Abstract

Changes in the quality of continental and coastal waters are detrimental to public health and to the economic and cultural uses of nature. This work aimed to investigate the social health and basic sanitation conditions of the population as explanatory variables for the quality of groundwater in the municipalities of Vera Cruz and Itaparica, in the Metropolitan Region of Salvador - MRS, Bahia, Brazil. It presents an interdisciplinary approach to the environmental quality of water, counting on the analysis of sanitation services and social health indicators. The analysis of groundwater quality integrated the data from the research by Carvalho (2008), Pereira (2009) and the Groundwater Information System - SIAGAS (CPRM). The use of space as a category of analysis, in relation to the environmental, sanitation and social health indicators, revealed that there was no equity in public service conditions in the MRS, unveiling intra-metropolitan inequalities, with the attention of the public authorities in the relationship between environment and health. Nitrate levels indicated potability restriction for 24% of samples in Itaparica and 63% of samples in Vera Cruz, whose water pollution demands solutions from water resources, sanitation and health planners, and should be better understood.