ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS AND VULNERABILITIES IN THE COASTAL ZONE OF AMAPÁ: ANALYSIS OF WASTE AND EFFLUENT POLLUTION AND ITS CONSEQUENCES ON PUBLIC HEALTH

Abstract

Coastal environments comprise some of the most vulnerable ecosystems on the globe, with an abundance and diversity of natural resources. Environmental impacts on these ecosystems have increased as coastal cities grow and pollutants generated by the population are improperly disposed of. The present work aims to characterize and delimit areas potentially impacted by waste and effluents within the limits of the Amapá Coastal Zone. For this, the stages of collecting information on environmental pollution by waste and effluents in the Coastal Zone of Amapá, the execution of descriptive statistics of the areas of the coastal municipalities, the correlation with waterborne diseases and the use of geoprocessing for data analysis were carried out. The results show that the disorderly growth of cities in the coastal zone is not accompanied by adequate policies for the development and monitoring of solid waste and effluents. This is reflected in studies that point to watersheds with high levels of pollutants and low sanitation rates, affecting the population unequally, with the northern mesoregion being the most impacted. This scenario affects public health with the emergence of pathologies, in which statistics describe a relationship between cases of acute diarrhea in municipalities and poor sanitation. This situation highlights the vulnerability of the coastal zone of Amapá, which needs more studies for better environmental, territorial and health management.