Groundwater and Anthropic Activities: A Qualitative Study on Treatment Techniques

Abstract

The hydrological water cycle comprises constant water movements, which have great influence on the maintenance of vital natural activities. Groundwater in particular constitutes a portion of aquifers, which are considered mobile reservoirs used mainly as a source of supply and human consumption. However, external influences have become largely responsible for the unbalance of the ecosystem, linked to the unbridled human consumption of finite natural resources and the consequent discharge of waste into the receiving bodies without the necessary treatment. The geological water cycle is interrupted when forests are cut down, springs and rivers are extinguished, and together with this, finally, the lack of basic sanitation alters the ecosystem, causing changes of great relevance to the world's population. Groundwater has suffered relevant impacts due to the loss of biodiversity of ecosystems, such as contamination, overuse, lack of current regulatory legislation for use, and the improvement of decontamination techniques. The analysis of the following activities is necessary, mainly due to the anthropic punctual impacts to the ecosystem, corroborating the need for satisfactory techniques. It is noticeable the need for extreme attention to the waste runoff via sanitary sewage to places that have treatment, but the same is not very efficient in retaining this liability, since some developing countries that have not reached about 90% treatment of sanitary sewage, demonstrating the lack of such activities. Thus, the objective of this study is to verify, by means of exploratory and bibliographic research in research bases, the measures that protect the water. Technological measures and sustainable management tools for this purpose will be reviewed, as well as the evolution of groundwater treatment techniques.