International Journal of Advanced Engineering Research and Science (IJAERS) Peer-Reviewed Journal ISSN: 2349-6495(P) | 2456-1908(O) Vol-9, Issue-6; Jun, 2022 Journal Home Page Available: https://ijaers.com/ Article DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.22161/ijaers.96.9 www.ijaers.com Page | 83 Aracoiaba Dam: Pollution factors and environmental degradation in the surrounding and Upstream Area Açude Aracoiaba: Fatores de poluição e degradação ambiental no entorno e a Montante Maria Lenir Menezes Paz 1 , Lívia Paulia Dias Ribeiro 2 , Antônio Roberto Xavier 3 , Francisco Nildo da Silva 4 , Sandra Sely Silveira Maia e Silva 5 1 Mestranda em Sociobiodiversidade e Tecnologias Sustentáveis (MASTS) pela Universidade da Integração Internacional da Lusofonia Afro-Brasileira – UNILAB, lenir_paz@hotmail.com 2 Instituto de Ciências Exatas e da Natureza, liviapaulia@unilab.edu.br 3 Institutode Ciências Sociais Aplicadas (ICSA) – UNILAB, roberto@unilab.edu.br Instituto de 4 Desenvolvimento Rural – (IDR)– UNILAB, nildo@unilab.edu.br 5 Empresa Organicos Baturité, masely2014@gmail.com Received: 09 May 2022, Received in revised form: 30 May 2022, Accepted: 05 Jun 2022, Available online: 15 Jun 2022 ©2022 The Author(s). Published by AI Publication. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Keywords— Aracoiaba Dam, Baturite massif, Pollution and environmental degradation. Palavras-chave— Açude Aracoiaba, Maciço de Baturité, Poluição e degradação ambiental, Abstract— The late 1990s, the Aracoiabacity experienced a crisis of drinking water shortages, which required the construction of the Aracoiaba Dam, which began in 2000. This research aimed to verify the existence of pollution and degradation factors environment around and upstream of the Aracoiaba Dam, as well as the characteristics of its waters, and the impacts of pollution and environmental degradation on the sustainability and quality of the water in that dam. The investigation was developed according to a basic and exploratory nature, with a qualitative approach through a case study. Research confirms the existence of sewage points, which the city of Aracoiaba itself and other surrounding cities, discharge directly into the bed of the Aracoiaba River, impairing its quality, which was confirmed through changes in the quality of these waters, when compared with Brazilian legislation. It was also confirmed the existence of environmental degradation in the surroundings and upstream of this dam, which also corroborates to compromise the quality of these waters. The great social and economic importance of the Aracoiaba Dam imposes the need to adopt mitigating measures to remedy the problems encountered. Resumo— No final dos anos 90, o município de Aracoiaba vivenciou uma grave crise de escassez de água potável, o que requereu a construção do Açude Aracoiaba iniciada no ano 2000. Esta pesquisa teve por objetivo verificar a existência de fatores de poluição e degradação ambiental no entorno do Açude Aracoiaba e a montante deste, bem como as características de suas águas, e os impactos da poluição e degradação ambiental para a sustentabilidade e qualidade da água desse açude. A investigação foi desenvolvida conforme natureza básica e exploratória, com abordagem qualitativapor meio de estudo de caso. As pesquisas confirmam a existência de pontos de esgoto, que a própria cidade de