Vulnerabilidade ao desabastecimento em situação de intermitência no abastecimento de água.

Abstract

Intermittent water supply is an undesirable condition, although frequent in water supply systems, caused by structural, operational or water shortages. Flashing occurs when the water service is available to users (or consumers) less than 24 hours a day. This condition produces adverse effects such as deterioration of the water supply network, normally designed for continuous supply, leakage of water in the form of leaks, constant adjustments in the water balance of the supply system, adaptations of users of the system (or consumers of water), in particular the domestic users, whose demand is not flexible and the capacity of variable water storage, among others. This paper proposes a simplified set of indicators to identify different levels of vulnerability to water shortages to which an urban population is subject, in a situation of intermittent water supply. The indicators can be obtained from census data, topological, topographic and hydraulic information from the supply system and from cadastral surveys or remote sensing of the locality, and can be processed in geographic information systems. This work presents the formulation of the indicators and their application to the Campina Grande - PB system, based on available surveys on users in intermittent supply situations. The results allow the identification of the most vulnerable areas in the urban space and the recommendation of mitigating measures to reduce the vulnerability of users potentially affected by the intermittent supply.