Estudo sobre perdas em sistemas de abastecimento de água e suas correlações com aspectos físicos e populacionais no Paraná

Abstract

The efficiency of a water supply system (WSS) should be a concern not only for sanitation companies but also for society as a whole, considering that millions of liters of treated water are lost every day, resulting in losses not only of chemicals used in treatment but also of energy waste from pumping. Several studies focus on discussing the management of WSS losses, aiming at best practices and solutions in this area, as the sanitation sector must be accountable to society for how its systems are managed. The objective of this research was to investigate management aspects of water supply systems in the state of Paraná, identifying loss indicators in the National Sanitation Information System (SNIS) and analyzing possible correlations between them, in order to verify if these correlations exist and their intensity. For the correlation study, a data set was created in which each loss index was correlated with each physical characteristic, population aspect, and operational aspect of each municipality. The Spearman method was used to perform correlations in seven different situations: a general analysis, four analyses in quartiles, and two analyses involving the legal nature of the companies. After statistical analysis, it was observed that the most significant correlations occurred between the water availability index and the loss index, indicating that the higher the water availability in the supply system, the more tolerable its wastage seems to be, represented by system losses.