Service and precariousness of sanitary sewage in rural communities in the state of Goiás, Brazil

Abstract

ABSTRACT The rate of attendance to sanitary sewage services is low in rural communities, representing precarious sanitation conditions with dumping in rudimentary cesspools or in the open. Knowledge of the fractions of effluents generated and the places where they are released is important, since inadequate disposal generates public health problems and negatively impacts the environment. In this way, the objective of this work was to identify the amounts of effluent fractions generated and the deficit of sanitary sewage in rural communities in the state of Goiás. The study area included 97 rural communities, from which data were collected regarding the existence of bathrooms, alternatives and disposal sites for domestic sewage fractions, such as feces separated from urine. The results indicated an absence of a bathroom in 6.6% of the analyzed rural households, being in 2.5 and 18.2% in the households of the settlements and quilombolas, respectively, highlighting in the latter the occurrence of disposal in the open or stream in 13.7%. There was a predominant use of rudimentary cesspools to receive sewage and fecal water, while gray water from the kitchen sink and washing tanks are mainly disposed in the backyard, representing the greatest deficit in the communities. Thus, in most of the studied households there is a deficit due to lack of service, due to the release of untreated effluents into ditches/open air, mainly for gray water, and precarious service due to the unsafe disposal of treated effluents or the use of rudimentary cesspools. Few alternative technologies were found for the treatment of effluents, with ecological pit, biodigester and Tapiocanga stone pit being identified. It was concluded that the deficit of sewage in the households of the studied communities is high, due to the release of effluents without treatment and the use of rudimentary cesspools, characterized as lack of service and precarious service, respectively, observed in 84.6% of households.