CAPTURE AND USE OF GROUNDWATER IN THE URBAN AREA OF THE MUNICIPALITY OF APODI, RN

Abstract

Currently, more than 50% of Brazilian municipalities have their water supply system coming from underground springs. As an emblematic example inserted in the northeastern semiarid region, the city of Apodi-RN has aquifers under its own urban area as its main source of supply. However, the lack of monitoring of hydrogeological parameters and water quality data makes the management process difficult. Information on the use and abstraction of aquifers is essential for planning and managing urban aquifers in a sustainable way. Therefore, this work aims to analyze the multiple uses and methods of capturing groundwater in municipality of Apodi -RN, Brazilian semiarid region. In this way, secondary data, collected by SIAGAS/CPRM, in 48 installed tubular wells were used. Subsequently, the data obtained were systematized in a database and inserted into Geographic Information System – GIS, with the purpose of specializing the data and, therefore, making a spatial analysis of the underground water source. As a result, we found that the wells that exploit water from the local aquifer are shallow, with a maximum depth of 106 meters. Its local groundwater has multiple uses, mainly for domestic and urban supply. Only 22% of the wells have a qualitative limitation for electrical conductivity, proving the good quality of the water, mainly abstracted from the Açu aquifer.