ANALYSIS OF THE PATOS DAM IN THE MUNICIPALITY OF SOBRAL IN THE STATE OF CEARÁ IN THE NORTHEAST SEMIARID

Abstract

Drought has been plaguing the State of Ceará for many years and one of the ways found to
mitigate the drought was the construction of dams. The present work makes a physical analysis
of one of the oldest dams that were built in the State of Ceará, which is the Patos Dam, which was
built to alleviate the problem of drought in the municipality of Sobral located in the semi-arid
region of the State of Ceará. The present work was carried out through an on-site visit where
visual inspections were made in the structures of the Patos Dam in the municipality of Sobral
located in the northern zone of the State of Ceará in a semi-arid region. It was possible to conclude
that the Patos dam, which was built damming the Aracatiaçu River, is among the few that has two
spillways and requires maintenance by the DNOCS (National Department of Works Against
Drought) because it presents some pathological manifestations such as erosion in the spillway and
the transverse undulation of a plastic nature in the asphalt coating on the road that passes over the
crest of the dam. It was also possible to conclude that there is a great need for the construction of
an ETA (Water Treatment Station) for the treatment of raw water for human consumption on the
bank of the Patos Dam, as the population of the District of Patos has been increasing