Evaluación de riesgos para la salud de la población por contaminación de agua por la incidencia de las actividades turísticas del río Salvador del cantón La Joya de Los Sachas

Abstract

The alteration of water quality is one of the most important environmental problems today; economic activities such as nature tourism, which in developing countries such as Ecuador is still carried out in an antitechnical manner, generating contamination and possible risks to human health. For this reason, the objective of this study was to evaluate the risks to the health of the population due to water contamination caused by tourism activities in the Salvador River in La Joya de los Sachas city. The methodology was non-experimental and field-based, using a quantitative approach; it was based on the monitoring of physicochemical and microbiological parameters along the Salvador River to determine compliance with current environmental regulations; based on the parameters considered as contaminants that exceed the permissible limits, the evaluation of non-carcinogenic health risks was carried out using the methodology established by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA 1989), which allowed characterizing the risk from ingestion of surface water while swimming and the risk from dermal contact. As results, it was determined that the nitrate parameter (NO3) does not meet the quality criteria of current environmental regulations; the health risk assessment was performed for children and adults, it was found that the risk of incidental ingestion while swimming and dermal contact by nitrates is higher for children, compared to adults, and that it is lower at the first sampling points. By virtue of the results obtained, it is concluded that in none of the points analyzed is the threshold considered to determine that there is a significant risk to health exceeded and the risk is low.