Public policies on water quality: a systematic review

Abstract

Water quality is conceived as an indicator of the quality of life that the population has, although it has long been considered an issue that harbors multiple problems due to contamination from anthropogenic activities (mining and agricultural) due to the use of insecticides for planting or chemicals used to extract fine metals. Hence, this article aims to analyze public policies on water quality in the Latin American region from a systematic review, aiming at deepening the existing scientific literature (scientific articles and research), through the PRISMA method, using data bases. data such as Science Direct and Google Scholar, where 15,200 works were located, of which 21 were selected as those that met the relevance criterion in a period from 2020 to 2024, related to the topic and context regarding the importance of the quality of water for living beings. The search results show that in most Latin American countries, policies on water quality seem to have had no significant impact on the sanitation or maintenance of this vital resource for human beings and multiple activities of interest, considering that Pollution, among other actions inherent to human activity, have been affecting quality indicators. In this way, it is concluded that governments must promote the establishment of reliable practices considering that water impacts health, and that its sanitation can contribute to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).