GUEDES, M. J. F.; http://lattes.cnpq.br/3341737489331381; GUEDES, Maria Josicleide Felipe.
Resumen:
The Brazilian's Northeast, in special, comes feeling the disastrous effect of the
combination of successive droughts to the deficiency or, even though, absence of water
resources management. Inside of this context, Campina Grande city, Paraiba, was chosen as
case study. During its history, this city was marked by crises in its supplying system.
Traditionally, the reply standard for the problems of water scarcity it comes being the
adoption of strategies directed to the water supplies expansion. However, the expansion of
water supplies model comes i f showing unsustainable due to continuous reduction of the
water availabilities, difficulty to find new sources and high involved costs. It is standed out,
therefore, the necessity to adopt a new paradigm based on the context of the water demand
management (GDA) associated to water supplies expansion, whose concept has left of the
premise of that great part of the future water demand is taken care of with the reduction of
wastefulnesses. Inside of this optics, this research supplies subsidies to the managers when of
the elaboration of a program of water rational use of residential and public sectors of the
Campina Grande city. In these kinds of programs, the technological alternatives of GDA have
been pointed as most viable, a time that allow the reduction in the water consumption without
it has significant changes in the users habits. Through the scenes simulation that had
contemplated the hypothetical implementation of the technological alternatives selected in
this research (low-discharge devices and sub-metering), it was verified possibility to reduce
the water demand significantly, as much for the residential sector how much for the public
sector (Alcides Carneiro University Hospital - HUAC). In the residential sector case, for
example, the water consumption reduction indices had varied between 1,20 and 33,64%. The
adoption of only one toilet bowl with 6 liters for drive gives a water consumption reduction of
14,50% for the Campina Grande residential sector. Considering this situation, the initial
investment reaches the amount of R$ 170,00 and period of return of 14 months for a residence
with monthly average consumption of 20 m3. In the HUAC, the substitution of the
conventional devices for more economics ones resulted In a water consumption reduction
index around 24,89%. In this case, the return of the initial investment reaches 12 months.
