Gestão da demanda industrial de água: coeficientes e medidas de redução de consumo (caso de estudo: indústria têxtil em Campina Grande - PB).

Abstract

Water resources management aims to ensure the balance between supply and demand of water, reducing conflicts over the multiple water uses, and providing the watershed sustainability. In a scenario of climate change, which causes the occurrence of extreme events (like floods and droughts), it becomes increasingly important the adoption of water demand management measures in order to augment water use efficiency, reducing water consumption in all user sectors; such management gains greater relevance in semiarid regions, where the recurring droughts lead to greater water uses competition. This study, in a pioneer manner, focuses on water consumption by the industrial sector of the city of Campina Grande – PB and, adopting the largest textile industry there installed as case of study, seeks to validate a methodology for determining water consumption coefficients – based on the type of industry and number of employees – and analyses the effects of applying water demand management measures. The results indicate that the methodology is valid – allowing, when required, the estimation of water consumption to industries in need of technical data – and that the adoption of sparing devices, allied to hydraulic equipment water leaks control, can lead to a significant reduction of water consumption in the analyzed textile industry, regarding to those activities indirectly linked to the industrial production. As this study limitations one can points to the difficulty in obtaining the necessary information and the absence of data relating to activities directly linked to the production in the analyzed industry. It is suggested the continuity of this research line, considering other companies in the textile sector, or even of other typologies, to allow the mapping of industrial water consumption to the city of Campina Grande.