Determinación de la huella hídrica y del agua virtual en una plantación de banano como producto de exportación en la finca “Santa Narcisa”; en el cantón La Concordia, provincia de Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas

Abstract

This project is about the determination of the amount and quality of water used in a banana crop, known as Water Footprint (HH), and the volume of water exported together with the product, defined as Virtual Water (AV), applied in the "Santa Narcisa" farm, canton La Concordia. For the calculation of these indicators, the software CROPWAT 8.0 was used with the help of Hoekstra et al. methodology. In addition, the water quality of the water streams (El Diablo and Conejo) was evaluated in the dry and rainy seasons; and of the residual water from the banana washing pools. Among the obtained results, the Water Footprint was 1206,44 m3/ton and the value of Virtual Water was 1,36 Mm3/ton. Regarding water streams quality, the parameters: color, phosphates, nitrates, total coliforms, pH and floating matter did not comply with the standards used. In the banana washing pools discharge, the aluminum value exceeds the maximum permissible limit. To reduce water consumption strategies were proposed for irrigation, banana washing and treatment of discharge water.