Water Quality and Sediment Behaviour of the Future: Predictions for the 21st Century (Proceedings of Symposium HS2005 at IUGG2007, Perugia, July 2007).  IAHS Publ. 314, 2007, 197-204.


 

Some reflections on the future of the water quality of the Corumbataí River basin, São Paulo State, Brazil

 

DANIEL MARCOS BONOTTO1 & JORGE LUIS NEPOMUCENO DE LIMA2

1 Instituto de Geociências e Ciências Exatas, UNESP-Universidade Estadual Paulista Júlio de Mesquita Filho, Av. 24-A, No. 1515, CP 178, CEP 13506-900, Rio Claro, São Paulo, Brasil

   dbonotto@rc.unesp.br

2 Departamento de Ciências Exatas, UNIR-Fundação Universidade Federal de Rondônia, Campus de Ji-Paraná, Estrada Itapirema, CEP 78961-170, Ji-Paraná, Rondônia, Brasil

 

Abstract The waters of Corumbataí River in the middle and eastern part of São Paulo State, Brazil, are extensively used for human consumption; their water quality has been modified mainly due to increasing pressure caused by population growth, accompanied by a more accentuated industrial develop­ment for the whole São Paulo State in the early 1970s. The Corumbataí River basin has, over time, received significant emissions of municipal waste products and discharges of wastewater, sludge, sewage, sanitary and industrial effluents, but the first effluent treatment plant at Rio Claro city was only inaugurated at the end of the 1990s. Data on river water quality from two widely spaced locations in the Corumbataí River basin are reported in this paper; they indicate the need for continuous initiatives and efforts by decision makers in order to improve and preserve the water quality in the basin for the 21st century.

 

Key words Corumbataí River basin; water quality; physical and chemical parameters; surface water; rainwater