Megacities as Sources for Pathogenic Bacteria in Rivers and Their Fate Downstream

Figure 1

Pinheiros River in São Paulo. The Pinheiros River as the Tiete River in Sao Paulo passes through the inner part of the city and is heavily polluted. Pinheiros River is largely anaerobic and heavy methane formation can be observed. In 2008 further down of this place at station PINH 04900 a mean conductivity of 480 𝜇S cm^-1, 18.67 mg l^-1 ammonium, 55.7 mg l^-1 BOD5 and 1,100,000 thermotolerant coliforms per 100 ml have been measured; data taken from the CETESB report 2009 [16].