| dc.description.abstract | Water availability, use and quality in dispersed rural communities in a rural watershed
within the Chilean Coastal Range were investigated through participatory research
involving the local community, also called citizen science. Research included the
quantification of recharge water and water use at the household level; monitoring of
water quality of streams, community water intakes and household faucets; and the
determination of land use and water quality interactions. A group of mainly women
along with the children of three local rural elementary schools were involved mainly in
the principal aspects of the research, from design to implementation and remediation
options. The study area receives considerable, but highly variable, rainfall, and the
hydrogeological setting does not offer enough inter-annual natural storage to cope with
increasing demand and variable water viability. Our results also showed that chemical
quality of the water is relatively good, except for the high concentration of iron (>
0,3mg/l) and manganese (>0, 1 mg/l) and turbidity (> 5 NTU). From the microbiological
point of view the water is of poor quality. The low water quality could be related to the
lack of maintenance of water collection systems, non-maintenance of septic tanks,
animal traffic, and low coverage of associated riparian vegetation. In the present
approach the involvement of children in research helped to stimulate the improved
management of both land and water resources by the community, and this practice
could be applied in small rural watersheds in developed or developing countries. | |
