Evaluación de la Calidad del Agua del Río Chibunga por Medio del Índice Ept

The contamination caused by the different anthropic activities and wastewater discharges without previous treatment, greatly affect the quality of the water and the surrounding ecosystems. The objective of this research was to evaluate the water quality of the Chibunga river in the Riobamba canton, through biomonitoring during the months of January, February and March 2022. The study methodology consisted of establishing strategic monitoring points to carry out sampling and subsequent analysis of the water quality in the river, using the EPT index (Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera and Trichoptera). For this, three sources of residual water discharge were identified; which were captured in a thematic map by means of the ArcGIS software. Subsequently, three macroinvertebrate sampling points were established along the river in the upper (P1), middle (P2) and lower (P3) parts, respectively, obtaining a total of 385 individuals collected using a Surber net. It was possible to determine that the macroinvertebrates corresponded to 19 taxonomic families, being the families Chironomidae and Scituate most abundant. The greatest diversity was found in P1 with 31.15%, in P2 a total of 5.13% and 0% in P3. The analysis of the results showed that the water quality varied from the upper part to the lower part; being "regular" at the beginning and "bad" at the end, according to the EPT index scale.