Understand the Fatma Bathing Reports
Fatma, Fundação do Meio Ambiente, carries out monthly analyzes during the winter and weekly during the summer in 106 resorts in Santa Catarina, which means 27 municipalities, to verify whether they are suitable or unsuitable for bathing.
The collection sites are chosen taking into account the number of bathers and the proximity to outlets of water bodies, such as rivers, streams, ditches and pipes. These places are often sought after by children and adults attracted by the warm and calm water, ignoring that it is precisely through the bodies of water that sewage reaches the beach. Contaminated water can cause diseases such as gastroenteritis, worms, skin diseases and even more serious waterborne diseases such as hepatitis, cholera and typhoid fever.
To find out if the water is suitable for bathing and sports, Fatma (Environment Foundation) checks the amount of existing Escherichia Coli, which represents 80% of fecal coliforms and is therefore considered the best indicator of water pollution. Because it is a bacterium of the coli group, Escherichia is present when there is fecal contamination from humans and warm-blooded animals.
To obtain a bathing result, five consecutive collections are carried out, one every week. When making the sixth, the first is discarded, leaving again with five. The collection is always done in the same place, approximately one meter deep.
In addition to collecting, Fatma also monitors weather conditions, wind, tide, temperature and water pH. Such factors can influence the bathing result.
Point classification according to Conama Resolution No. 274/2000
Water is considered:
own: when in 80% or more of a set of samples collected in the last five weeks, at the same location, there is a maximum of 800 Escherichia coli per 100 milliliters.
inappropriate: when in more than 20% of a set of samples collected in the last five weeks, in the same place, it is greater than 800 Escherichia coli per 100 milliliters or when, in the last collection, the result is greater than 2000 Escherichia coli per 100 milliliters.
>> See the bathing report on the beaches of Florianópolis.
>> See bathing reports for all beaches in Santa Catarina on Website of IMA - Institute of the Environment of Santa Catarina.
Details
(48) 3216-1775 / 3216-1774.
