Chemical and agronomic characterization of Tapaste river water, located at the source of the Almendares-Vento Basin
The scarcity and deterioration of fresh water is one of the most alarming problems facing humanity today. As a solution strategy, different competent administrations, such as UNESCO and the Royal Legislative Decree of Spain, have proposed the reuse of wastewater. Cuba is not exempt from these problems and its national water policy promotes the application of this practice. For this reason, the objective of this work was to characterize and evaluate the quality of Tapaste river waters, located in the upper part of Almendares-Vento Basin source. To carry out the study, a monitoring network was established in the river's passage through the urban area of Tapaste town. The values of the evaluated indicators were compared with those established by FAO, WHO and the Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change Strategy of British Columbia government for use in agriculture, domestic and conservation of aquatic life respectively. As main results, it was found that the quality of the Tapaste river water is not appropriate for any of the three uses evaluated, because the concentration of Cd, alkalinity and BOD5 exceed the established limits and in the most contaminated points it is exceeded up to 17, 11 and 22 times for Cd, alkalinity and BOD5, respectively. The pollution observed is a consequence of the level of water stagnation and the continuous discharges of urban waste, which vary with the sampling site.
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