Contamination of Urban Rivers

Abstract

Water quality of urban watercourses that drain the rainwater of the cities, is mainly the function of soil occupation type, especially in large cities, where your proofing rate is high. The chaotic urbanization and improper use of soil cause the reduction of the natural storage capacity of water courses. Loads of pollutants resulting from the washing of impermeable areas by the rains, improper disposal of municipal solid waste and domestic sewage dump urban basins, over the years, has impacted the quality of the waters of rivers, coming downstream of the denser areas of the cities much more contaminated than upstream. Sampling campaigns were carried out with chemical analyses of the waters of the rivers that are part of the basin of the cities of Paracambi, in the State of Rio de Janeiro, and Lorena, in the State of São Paulo in Brazil. It was observed elevated levels of contaminants in the waters of the rivers to pass by the centers of cities or populated areas, being higher, even, than the perceived contamination downstream of a garbage dump on the banks of the river. This paper presents the results of these surveys.