Population exposed to contaminated water and health promotion in a peripheral urban neighborhood in the Brazilian Amazon

The neighborhood of Novo Israel, North district of Manaus, Amazonas/Brazil, was built on an abandoned deposit of solid waste. The local sanitary situation is aggravated by the lack of public distribution of potable water, been the wells available previously analyzed, indicating heavy metals and other contaminants. The aim of this project was to identify people’s ways of using water and their interpretations of the environmental and health problems, and to perform a health promotion intervention in Novo Israel. In June, 2007, 162 semi-structured questionnaires were applied among households, in addition to a group interview based on the focal group methodology with the participation of teachers from a local public school and a meeting with the community residents. About the source of drinking water, 70.4% reported a deep well and 19.8% low depth well. The water was evaluated as “good” for 65.4% of the interviewed, and 74.7% declared no use of treatment. The majority of the households (79.6%) claimed knowledge of the solid waste deposit and 74.4% of these said this could damage environment and health. Although it was not clear the acknowledgement of contamination by chemical elements or chronic diseases threats. The activities involving teachers showed that they partially recognize the problem, but do not take part in this regard. As far as the community, the major difficulty was lack of adherence, since only 30 people attended the meeting, among which was identified a dispersive militancy towards finding solutions. The project analysis emphasized the importance of the school’s role to mobilize the population to recognize the problem, acting as an area of interaction between local community, education and research institutions and executive organizations. Key words: water supply; public health; health promotion.