Comparación de índices de calidad de agua para consumo humano en pozos profundos del municipio miranda (Zulia, Venezuela)

Groundwater can be an inexhaustible source for various human activities; but also, very vulnerable to chemical and microbiological contamination, so it must be constantly monitored to know its quality in relation to the different uses made of the aquifers. In turn, the water quality indices (WQI) allow the transmission of information on the quality of the water resource, both to the competent authorities and to the general public, in a simple and concise manner. In the present investigation, three different ICA (weighted Arithmetic ICA, ICA-CCME and ICA-Bhargava) were compared in 32 deep wells in a rural area of the Miranda municipality (Zulia, Venezuela), taking into account the parameters: pH, turbidity, color, total dissolved solids, chloride, sulfate, sodium, total hardness, nitrate+nitrite, total iron, total manganese, total and fecal coliform bacteria. The results highlight that, with respect to the ICA-CCME, 22% of the wells have a "fair" quality, while for the ICA-Bhargava 100% were "average", due to the presence of coliform bacteria. In addition, for the weighted ICA-Arithmetic, 25.0% exhibited a "poor" classification. In general, the weighted ICA-Arithmetic and ICA-CCME revealed that 75% and approximately 16% of the wells, respectively, have adequate conditions for human consumption, while for the ICA-Bhargava, none is suitable for said purpose. This discrepancy between the results of the different ICAs is due to the number and type of parameters considered. However, none of the wells fully accomplished with the permissible limits established by the World Health Organization for human consumption, being unsuitable for this use, therefore, the ICA that best adjusted to the water quality of the area of study was the ICA-Bhargava, since it corresponds to the results shown by the referred norms.