Achieving Goal 6 of Sustainable Development in A Transboundary River

Instituto Mexicano de Tecnología del Agua, Jiutepec, Morelos, México

  Abstract: The goal of Sustainable Development on water (goal 6, SDG 6) raises: by 2030, improve water quality by reducing pollution, eliminating waste and minimizing the release of chemicals and hazardous materials, reducing half the proportion of untreated wastewater and substantially increasing recycling and safe reuse worldwide (goal 6.3). As well as applying integrated management of water resources at all levels, including through cross-border cooperation (goal 6.5) (UNDP, 2016). The Bravo River is the main transboundary river between the United States and Mexico to determine and reach the goal for 2030, the diagnosis of water quality in the lower basin covering 460 km of the river was made, downstream of the Falcón International Dam to the mouth of the Gulf of Mexico. The Rio Grande is the recipient of wastewater discharges from specific and diffuse pollution sources, both of the population and of the agricultural sector. Monitoring sites were located in the main channel of the river and the main discharges and drains that discharge to the lower Rio Grande during the dry season were evaluated. For the diagnosis of the discharges of wastewater that are contributed to the river, the maximum allowed limits (LMA) of the norm NOM-001-SEMARNAT-1996 were taken into account and for the river the ecological criteria of water quality for protection to aquatic life (CE-CCA-001/1989). The three monitoring campaigns were carried out during the dry season and the analysis of the physical and chemical parameters in the discharges and in the river were carried out in an accredited laboratory and approved by the National Water Commission. The parameters that did not comply with the maximum permissible limits of NOM-001-SEMARNAT-1996 in the discharges of wastewater contributed directly to the river were: BOD, Fat and oil, SSed, SST, Total nitrogen and Fecal Coliform. In the effluents of the six treatment plants, Fats and Oils, Biological Oxygen Demand, Total Suspended Solids, Total Nitrogen and Faecal Coliforms surpassed the maximum permissible limits of the current regulations. With the diagnosis of water quality and to achieve compliance with the goal 6.3 improvement of water quality, in the treatment plants are necessary actions to control pollution and reach the goal in 2030 for a transboundary river as the Lower River Bravo.