Resumo

RIVERA, Patricia; CHAVEZ, Refugio  e  SALINAS, Fabiola Rivera. Advances and limitations in the treatment of wastewater in the state of Zacatecas. Tecnol. cienc. agua [online]. 2018, vol.9, n.1, pp.113-123.  Epub 24-Nov-2020. ISSN 2007-2422.  https://doi.org/10.24850/j-tyca-2018-01-08.

Making the wastewater treatments meet the established standards is one of the greatest challenges the government faces. However, different contexts accordingly require that actions meet the needs and characteristics of each specific location. In the state of Zacatecas, Mexico some treatment plants have been built within the past 10 years with the aim of ensuring sustainable watersheds. However, despite these advances in infrastructure, it is necessary to analyze the performance and treatment of municipal plants to clarify the challenges in the field. In the development of this work, four key sources were consulted: Inventario y situación actual de las plantas de tratamiento del estado de Zacatecas (Rivera-Salinas, 2011); Inventario nacional de plantas municipales de potabilización y de tratamiento de aguas residuales en operación (Conagua, 2011); Diagnóstico de plantas de tratamiento de agua residual (PTAR, 2014); and the Inventario de la Secretaría de Agua y Medio Ambiente (SAMA, 2017). We found that only 53% of the plants operate, the rest have various issues which show the municipalities inability to alleviate the problems of treatment (ranging from obsolete plants, low maintenance, insufficient funds, untrained personnel, etc.), forcing the state to intervene and centralize treatment in urban areas with advanced technology plants. The results show a non-efficient decentralization of services and little coordination between municipalities, which are essential factors in medium and long-term planning.

Palavras-chave : Wastewater; treatment systems; inventory; state of Zacatecas.