Water quality in urban orchards of Valdivia

Abstract

Urban orchards, together with the use of public space and delivery of fresh food, play a relevant social role, which has been observed especially during the pandemic and post-pandemic periods. In Chile, the average increase of these spaces reaches 15% per year and continues to grow, especially in highly populated cities where access to green areas per inhabitant is very restricted. However, these spaces lack of technical studies associated with the quality of water used for irrigation. The objective of this study was to evaluate the quality of water used for the irrigation of urban gardens in the city of Valdivia. The pH, electrical conductivity, total dissolved solids and iron concentration were evaluated according to the NCh 1333 and NCh 409 norms. The study showed that all the orchards comply with the standards established by the current norm, except for the Fe concentration in the Collico orchard. This study showed the relevance of evaluating the water quality of urban gardens considering parameters established by the Chilean Standard on water quality requirements, since the potential contamination of irrigation water in urban gardens can lead to possible limitations for crops and production of contaminated food and/or food not suitable for human consumption.