Rational use of water and sanitary waste in TO

The global concern regarding natural resources is increasingly growing and requires greater attention and adaptation from all of us, especially in relation to the efficient use of these resources. According to UN data, of the total water on the planet, around 97,50% is salty. Of the remaining 2,5%, 70% is ice and only 0,007% is available to man. Of this reduced value of 0,007% accessible, 70% is used by agriculture, 20% by industries and the remainder for human supply. Around 1,2 million people, approximately 20% of humanity, do not have water for a normal life, 3,4 million people, mostly children, die from diseases contracted by water and 2,2 million die from diarrhea associated with lack of water or due to polluted water. WHO data show that, in Brazil, water contamination and lack of sanitation account for 63% of pediatric hospitalizations and 30% of deaths in children under one year of age. In relation to sanitation, according to IBGE data, 77,8% of Brazilian households have treated water supply, 62,2% have sewage collection, but only 11% of rural households have sewage collection. In Brazil, according to the Anuario Estatístico de América Latina y el Caribe, there is only 35% of rural sanitation, a situation that places our country in one of the last places in Latin America and the Caribbean, ahead only of Bolivia and Haiti.

Although Brazil has around 13% of all fresh water on the planet and the State of Tocantins has good water availability, being located between two of the country's largest river basins, the Araguaia-Tocantins basin, the distribution is uneven, both sources as well as the region's own rainwater, which only falls from October to April, leaving practically no rain from May to September and leaving the majority of producers dependent on this water regime. The existence of these two well-defined seasons and the incidence of dry spells in the rainy season, associated with low natural soil fertility, are the main difficulties faced in the intensive agricultural use of the region, therefore suggesting the practice of irrigation as an appropriate technology to enable production in the off-season.

Despite a significant portion of the State's population being essentially rural, and 60% being family farmers, there is a huge lack of these technological alternatives suited to the socioeconomic conditions of these farmers, causing them to subsist at the expense of inefficient methods of agricultural production. . This situation arises from the fact that the research carried out has generally not taken into account the production systems adopted by farmers, generally offering technologies per product, which suggest the intensive use of modern inputs and capital, which are scarce for small farmers and they mischaracterize the way in which labor is used, which, in general, is of family origin. The development of family farming must begin with understanding the needs of producers and how they perceive them, based on their own production systems.

Therefore, we must think about developing technologies that allow the capture, storage and preservation of water and its sources, in addition to preserving natural resources and environmentally friendly technologies. Adequate and immediate technologies that enable this rational use can be proposed and implemented, such as those that promote rainwater capture, in addition to the use, treatment and reuse of water and sanitary effluents, observing the importance of rational use of water , natural resources and waste in agriculture.

In the search for these low-cost technological alternatives, a partnership between UFT, Campus de Gurupi and Embrapa Cerrados, together with the Service Provision, Technical Assistance and Rural Extension Cooperative – COOPTER and the Regional University of Gurupi – UNIRG, proposed actions alternatives adapted to the problems of certain small farming communities. In a cooperative and participatory way in the search for sustainable development, they proposed experimenting with technological alternatives to improve agricultural production systems in use by family farmers, focusing their initial attention on obtaining, conserving and managing water. The project is using participatory methodologies, with the involvement of members of the settlement in the decisions to be made. This methodology essentially consists of the following steps: Diagnosis of the situation of family units and their production systems; Proposing technological improvements for production systems; Validation of technological, managerial and organizational alternatives for the main production systems identified. Therefore, it was decided to install 3 plate cisterns to capture rainwater, 10 septic tanks, biodigesters and 10 chlorinators, accompanied by the installation of a small vegetable garden of 500 m2, irrigated by a localized water application system.

All proposed technologies are low cost and aim to improve the production system. The plate cisterns serve lots that generally have problems with water during the region's dry period, as they do not have streams or dams or, when they do have streams, they dry up during that time. Biodigester septic tanks are already used in several places in Brazil, being an alternative for the production of organic fertilizer from sanitary waste, which undergoes a biodigestion process, offering an excellent quality product, at practically zero cost. Water plus sanitary waste that would pollute the soil and water sources, due to the precariousness of basic sanitation, are reused, in a clean, rational, economical, accessible and sustainable way.

Experiments with corn, beans, and some vegetables are already being implemented to generate data that provides a scientific basis for this technology in our region. Observations from the producers themselves attest to the efficiency of the fertilizer on fruit and vegetable plants, which generated great acceptance, helping to resolve any initial suspicions, and leading other producers to seek information and possible adoption of the proposed technologies. We therefore hope that some gains will be made at the end of the project: better use of water and waste, with a consequent improvement in the quality of life of the families involved; improvement in the production system, through production in the dry season; appropriate planting techniques, with gains in productivity; drastic reduction in the use of chemical inputs, which increase production costs; improvement in income, through the feasibility of producing and selling food during the off-season and adopting technologies proposed by other farmers in the region.

Researcher at Embrapa Cerrados / UEP-TO

Professor of the agronomy course at UFT / Gurupi Campus