Pegada hídrica de alunos de uma escola estadual do município de Sumé-PB.

Abstract

Water is the most important natural resource on the planet. In view of this, water scarcity has become increasingly worrying due to the consequences of unbridled population growth and the misuse of this resource. Because it is so valuable to human life, it is important and necessary to use water resources instruments. One tool that can be used for the management of water resources is the water footprint (PH), which measures the amount of fresh water consumed and incorporated in consumer goods throughout its production process, directly and indirectly. Based on this assumption, this study aims to evaluate the water footprint of high school students of the state school professor José Gonçalves de Queiroz of the municipality of Sumé, located in Cariri Paraibano. Questionnaires were applied, which took into account gender, domestic consumption, industrial goods and food. For the calculations the methodology used was the mathematical calculation tool proposed by Hoekstra et. al (2011), available on the water footprint network website. The total average found amonginterviewees indicates an average Water Footprint of 7,577.64 liters of water consumed per day, higher than the Brazilian average of 5.553.425 liters / day and average of the state of Paraíba that is of 2,180.82 liters / day. These results show the uncontrolled consumption by respondents who exceed the national average and Therefore, it is necessary to apply measures to make use of this sustainable use, so that this value is reduced in order to propose actions for review their consumption patterns, since students live in a region that faces water scarcity problems in Brazil.