Percepção sobre saneamento ambiental: um estudo de caso na Vila Histórica de Caraíva, Porto Seguro - BA

Abstract

Environmental sanitation represents an essential tool for maintaining environmental quality, well-being and human health. On the other hand, the study of environmental perception can provide instruments to overcome impasses related to the theme, since it provides an awareness of the problems related to the lived environment. Thus, recognizing the lack of information about the sanitation issues in the study area, the investigation presented aims to analyze the environmental perception of the historic village of Caraíva residents (in Porto Seguro municipality, in Bahia state) regarding sanitation, in the perspective of contributing with information that can support education and environmental management programs and strategies, aiming to collaborate with health, quality of life and sustainability of the local population. For this, interviews were conducted including open and closed questions with 77 residents of residential and mixed-use properties (residential and commercial) and observations between the months of November 2019 and March 2020. Quantitative variables of the profile of the interviewees and sanitary conditions were submitted to descriptive statistics, considering the frequency and percentages of the information. Qualitative data, in turn, were interpreted and analyzed using the Collective Subject Discourse (DSC) technique and the central ideas found were distributed in frequency tables. With the aid of the RStudio statistical software, the data were subjected to the chi-square test to verify whether the sociodemographic variables and sanitary conditions are uniformly distributed and whether there is a dependency relationship between the qualitative results and the sociodemographic variables. As a result, it was found that sanitation conditions in the village are inadequate, with the use of approximately 39,86% of rudimentary cesspools, a high adhesion to bottled mineral water (89.61%) and a strong dependence on water from shallow wells (80,52%), being greater than the use of piped water (70,03%). Regarding solid residues, although they are destined for organic animals, the residents practice composting and separating cans and cardboard, although it was found that the habit of burning and burial is still used by 33.76% of the interviewees, being associated with the least educated, older age and in residential properties. In addition, 45,45% of the interviewees rated the environmental quality as reasonable (acceptable) and associated their level of satisfaction with aspects that negatively influence the environment due to inadequate sanitation, among them the lack of awareness and the excess of people due to of tourism. The protagonism of the residents regarding autonomy in solving problems of public interest was evident, however, the interviewees attributed to the government the responsibility for undertaking improvements in terms of sewage, water supply and solids. However, regarding the latter, the results pointed to an expanded understanding of the topic, since 32,47% of the interviewees believe that the management of waste is so much the responsibility of the individual public power, considering it a shared responsibility