Panorama do tratamento de esgoto sanitário nas regiões Sul, Sudeste e Centro-Oeste do Brasil: tecnologias mais empregadas

Abstract

In view of the Brazilian commitments in order to increase the sewage treatment levels, it is important to analyze the most applied technologies in regional scenarios. The aim of this paper is to report the current implementation stage of the various processes associated with the treatment of domestic sewage in six Brazilian states in the South, Southeast and Midwest regions, alongside the Federal District. It also emphasizes the technologies regarding their application into different population equivalent scales. The data were collected from the state and municipal sanitation utilities, subsequently faced with a database provided by the Agência Nacional de Águas. Altogether, 1,667 sewage treatment plants (STPs) were inventoried, which have installed capacity to serve approximately 75% of the urban population of the investigated region. The most employed sewage treatment technologies are: UASB reactors, stabilization ponds and activated sludge. These three treatment technologies sum up 90% of the STPs used, accounting for 81% of the treatment installed capacity