bachelorThesis
Evaluación de la huella de agua por uso directo en la finca bananera “San Felipe”, cantón Pasaje, provincia El Oro
Fecha
2021-12-16Autor
González Moreno, Voltaire Adrián
Panamito Reyes, Dunia Lisseth
Institución
Resumen
Considering that less than 1% of the water present on the planet is for human consumption and that most
of it is used for agricultural purposes, the care and management of water become the central axis to ensure
its sustainability. Because of this problem and following what is promoted by the Food and Agriculture
Organization of the United Nations (FAO), this research project proposes to evaluate the water footprint of
a banana farm, considering the entire production chain, and to propose an alternative that minimizes the
evaluated water footprint. To meet the research objectives, a 6,18-hectare farm located in the city of Pasaje,
which produces organic bananas for export, was used as a scenario. The study followed the guidelines
contemplated in the ISO 14046:2014 standard, which is based on Life Cycle Analysis (LCA), and
contemplates the impact due to scarcity following the AWARE methodology, the impact due to
eutrophication using the ReCiPe method, and the impact due to Ecotoxicity using the USEtox methodology.
In addition, the methodological guide for the water and carbon footprint in banana production was published
by FAO. The results generated by the project show that the San Felipe farm consumes 7,4 m3 and degrades
0,467 m3 of water per 18.14 Kg box of bananas for export. Regarding the impacts evaluated, the impact due
to eutrophication was 0,00365 Kg of phosphorus equivalent (Kg P e), the impact due to Ecotoxicity was
22,475 PAF.m3
. day or CTUe, while the impact due to scarcity was 4,44 m3 equivalent, the latter being the
greatest impact calculated in the banana farm. Therefore, a water treatment and recirculation system were
proposed as a minimization strategy, which consists of a coarse dynamic filter that will reduce the organic
load and water demand, which is expected to be a great contribution for future research in the banana sector.