Constraining Risk Narratives: A Multidecadal Media Analysis of Drinking Water Insecurity in Bangladesh

Recent reports from the UN find that 2.6 billion people have gained access to improved drinking water sources since 1990, but 663 million people still live without. Other recent work demonstrates that 4 billion people annually face severe water scarcity as a result of seasonal fluctuations in water availability and quality. How is it that, despite the significant development in water resource availability documented by the UN, literally billions of people are regularly experiencing water insecurity? To begin to understand how a lack of access to reliable water resources affects everyday life, I focus on a specific outcome of water insecurity: waterborne illness. Given the difficulty in linking illness to a particular source, this research focuses on perceptions of water safety. I ask participants about illness they perceive coming from their drinking water, conducting face-to-face surveys (N = 224) spatially distributed around Choma town, Southern Province, Zambia. In particular, I investigate how these perceptions affect everyday life and what intersecting factors are likely to increase or decrease the probability of a person perceiving drinking water as the source of their illness. Our findings demonstrate that individual perceptions of waterborne illness are tightly coupled with perceptions of water needs being met or not, water flexibility (water storage capacity and water resource type and number available), total water use, food security and distance to various services. My work identifies and qualifies intersecting relationships that are critical to the design of any policy or other means of intervention intended to reduce experienced and perceived waterborne illness and other everyday needs of subsistence farmers facing the challenges presented by climate change and other forms of environmental change.

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How Do Rural Ethiopians Rate the Severity of Water Insecurity Scale Items? Implications for Water Insecurity Measurement and Interventions

Human Organization ◽

10.17730/1938-3525.79.2.95 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 79 (2) ◽

pp. 95-106

Author(s):

Yihenew Tesfaye ◽

Kenneth Maes ◽

Roza Abesha ◽

Sera Young ◽

Jedidiah S. Snyder ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Drinking Water ◽

Psychological Distress ◽

Urban Residence ◽

Water Insecurity ◽

Scale Item ◽

Measurement Evaluation ◽

Subjective Perceptions ◽

Household Water ◽

The Mean ◽

The Relationship

Recently developed scales aim to advance understanding of household water insecurity and inform interventions to address this critical global problem. The relative severity of items included in household water insecurity scales has been established as an inverse of the proportion of the population that reports experiencing the item. Here, we assess subjective perceptions of scale item severity among people who experience household water insecurity. In 2017, we surveyed 259 women in Amhara, Ethiopia, assessing both experiences of water insecurity and perceptions of item severity using a pictorial scale. The mean subjective severity of most items was at the high end of our pictorial scale. Subjective severity of items was not associated with whether or not a participant experienced the item in the last thirty days, with a participant’s summary household water insecurity score, or with rural versus peri-urban residence, but was consistently associated with community of residence. Item severity as defined by the proportion of the population experiencing the item aligned with average perceptions of item severity, with one exception: drinking water that might not be safe. We discuss these findings’ implications for water insecurity measurement, evaluation of interventions, and studies of the relationship between water insecurity and psychological distress.

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The effects of drinking water service fragmentation on drought-related water security

Science ◽

10.1126/science.aba7353 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 368 (6488) ◽

pp. 274-277 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Megan Mullin

Keyword(s):

Drinking Water ◽

Water Security ◽

The United States ◽

Water Systems ◽

Drought Vulnerability ◽

Water Insecurity ◽

Community Water Systems ◽

Systems Research ◽

Community Water ◽

Water Provision

Drought is a critical stressor that contributes to water insecurity. In the United States, an important pathway by which drought affects households’ access to clean, reliable drinking water for basic needs is through the organization and activities of community water systems. Research on the local political economy of drinking water provision reveals the constraints on community water systems that affect their performance when confronting drought hazards. Fragmentation in responsibility for drinking water contributes to disparities in drought vulnerability, preparation, and response across households and across communities. The nature and extent of these disparities require further investigation to identify strategies for expanding water security in the face of drought and other water hazards.

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Understanding Local Water Collaboration for the Potential to Enhance Community Source Water Protection at Chippewas of the Thames First Nation

Rural Review: Ontario Rural Planning, Development, and Policy ◽

10.21083/ruralreview.v5i1.6596 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 5 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Natalya Garrod

Keyword(s):

Drinking Water ◽

First Nations ◽

Significant Risk ◽

Water Security ◽

Source Water ◽

Water Protection ◽

Water Insecurity ◽

Source Water Protection ◽

Local Water ◽

Community Source

First Nations in Canada are disproportionately affected by chronic drinking water insecurity (Bakker, 2012). Aboriginal Affair and Northern Development Canada conducted an assessment of First Nations water and wastewater systems in 2001 and found significant risk to the quality and safety of drinking water on three- quarters of all systems (Johns and Rasmussen, 2008). Neegan Burnside (2011) classified four differentrisks that affect drinking water systems for First Nations, which include, no source water protection plan,deterioration of water quality over time, risk of contamination, and insufficient capacity to meet futurerequirements. This study found that the two highest risks were risk of source water contamination and thelack of a community source water protection plan (Neegan Burnside, 2011). Water security, sustainableaccess on a watershed basis to adequate quantities of water of acceptable quality to ensure human andecosystem health (Bakker, 2012), therefore requires source water protection and collaboration amongwater actors. Collaboration is defined as the pooling of resources by multiple stakeholders to solveproblems, which includes a balance of power among actors, mutually agreed upon objectives, is perceived as legitimate, and includes a wide variety of stakeholders (Ashlie, 2019; Van Der Porten, 2013; Spencer etal., 2016; Black & McBean, 2017).

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Understanding Local Water Collaboration for the Potential to Enhance Community Source Water Protection at Chippewas of the Thames First Name

Rural Review: Ontario Rural Planning, Development, and Policy ◽

10.21083/ruralreview.v5i1.6588 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 5 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Natalya Garrod

Keyword(s):

Drinking Water ◽

First Nations ◽

Significant Risk ◽

Water Security ◽

Source Water ◽

Water Protection ◽

Water Insecurity ◽

Source Water Protection ◽

Local Water ◽

Community Source

First Nations in Canada are disproportionately affected by chronic drinking water insecurity (Bakker, 2012). Aboriginal Affair and Northern Development Canada conducted an assessment of First Nations water and wastewater systems in 2001 and found significant risk to the quality and safety of drinking water on three- quarters of all systems (Johns and Rasmussen, 2008). Neegan Burnside (2011) classified four differentrisks that affect drinking water systems for First Nations, which include, no source water protection plan,deterioration of water quality over time, risk of contamination, and insufficient capacity to meet futurerequirements. This study found that the two highest risks were risk of source water contamination and thelack of a community source water protection plan (Neegan Burnside, 2011). Water security, sustainableaccess on a watershed basis to adequate quantities of water of acceptable quality to ensure human andecosystem health (Bakker, 2012), therefore requires source water protection and collaboration amongwater actors. Collaboration is defined as the pooling of resources by multiple stakeholders to solveproblems, which includes a balance of power among actors, mutually agreed upon objectives, is perceived as legitimate, and includes a wide variety of stakeholders (Ashlie, 2019; Van Der Porten, 2013; Spencer etal., 2016; Black & McBean, 2017).

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Our Relationship to Water and Experience of Water Insecurity among Apsáalooke (Crow Indian) People, Montana

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health ◽

10.3390/ijerph18020582 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 18 (2) ◽

pp. 582

Author(s):

Christine Martin ◽

Vanessa W. Simonds ◽

Sara L. Young ◽

John Doyle ◽

Myra Lefthand ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Drinking Water ◽

Native American ◽

Native Americans ◽

Community Health ◽

Safe Drinking Water ◽

Water Access ◽

Water Insecurity ◽

Crow Indian ◽

Water Uses ◽

Over Time

Affordable access to safe drinking water is essential to community health, yet there is limited understanding of water insecurity among Native Americans. Therefore, the focus of this paper is to describe Apsáalooke (Crow Indian) tribal members’ experiences with water insecurity. For Apsáalooke people, local rivers and springs are still vitally important for traditional cultural activities. We interviewed 30 Native American adults living on the Crow Reservation in Southeastern Montana. Participants answered six open-ended interview questions about their water access, costs of obtaining water and changes in their domestic and traditional water uses. Participants emphasized how the use of water has changed over time and described the complex challenges associated with addressing water insecurity in their community, including the importance of considering the spiritual and cultural impacts of water insecurity on health. Water insecurity is a growing global problem and more attention and efforts are needed to find appropriate and affordable solutions.

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Rising Drinking Water Insecurity in the Indian Himalayan Region of Sikkim

Ecology, Economy and Society–the INSEE Journal ◽

10.37773/ees.v3i1.97 ◽

1970 ◽

Vol 3 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Barun Kumar Thakur ◽

Kanish Debnath ◽

Vaishali Dhingra ◽

Debi Prasad Bal

Keyword(s):

Drinking Water ◽

Himalayan Region ◽

Water Insecurity ◽

Indian Himalayan Region

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Nation-building, industrialisation, and spectacle: Political functions of Gujarat’s Narmada pipeline project

10.31235/osf.io/ewa8b ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

Mona Luxion

Keyword(s):

Drinking Water ◽

Nation Building ◽

Water Insecurity ◽

Narmada River ◽

Well Yield ◽

Indian State ◽

Pipeline Project ◽

World Class ◽

Sardar Sarovar ◽

Sardar Sarovar Dam

Since 2000 the Indian state of Gujarat has been working to construct a state-wide water grid to connect 75% of its approximately 60 million urban and rural residents to drinking water sourced from the controversial Sardar Sarovar Dam on the Narmada River. This project represents a massive undertaking – it is billed as the largest drinking water project in the world – and is part of a broader predilection toward large, concrete-heavy supply-side solutions to water insecurity across present-day India. This paper tracks the claims and narratives used to promote the project, the political context in which it has emerged, the purposes it serves and, following Ferguson (1990), the functioning of the discursive-bureaucratic 'machine' of which it is a product.The dam’s reinvention as the solution to Gujarat’s drinking water shortfall – increasingly for cities and Special Industrial Regions – reflects a concern with attracting and retaining foreign investment through the creation of so-called 'world-class' infrastructure. At the same time, this reinvention has contributed to a project of nation-building, while remaining cloaked in a discourse of technological neutrality. The heavy infrastructure renders visible Gujarat’s commitment to 'development' even when that promise has yet to be realised for many, while the promise of Narmada water gives Gujarat’s leaders political capital with favoured investors and political supporters. In conclusion, I suggest that the success of infrastructure mega-projects as a political tool is not intrinsically tied to their ability to achieve their technical and social objectives. Instead, the 'spectacle' of ambitious infrastructural development projects may well yield political gains that outweigh, for a time, the real-world costs of their inequity and unsustainability.

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Drinking water insecurity: water quality and access in coastal south-western Bangladesh

International Journal of Environmental Health Research ◽

10.1080/09603123.2016.1194383 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 26 (5-6) ◽

pp. 508-524 ◽

Cited By ~ 31

Author(s):

Laura Benneyworth ◽

Jonathan Gilligan ◽

John C. Ayers ◽

Steven Goodbred ◽

Gregory George ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Water Quality ◽

Drinking Water ◽

Water Insecurity

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Drinking Water Insecurity in Southwest Coastal Bangladesh: How Far to SDG 6.1?

Water ◽

10.3390/w13243571 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (24) ◽

pp. 3571

Author(s):

Mohammad Jobayer Hossain ◽

Md. Arif Chowdhury ◽

Sayka Jahan ◽

Rashed Uz Zzaman ◽

Syed Labib Ul Islam

Keyword(s):

Drinking Water ◽

Low Income ◽

Water Environment ◽

Coastal Region ◽

Water Infrastructure ◽

Water Insecurity ◽

Coastal Bangladesh ◽

Development Goals ◽

The Government ◽

Water Scarce

Substantial progress has been seen in the drinking water supply as per the Millennium Development Goals (MDG), but achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), particularly SGD 6.1 regarding safely managed drinking water with much more stringent targets, is considered as a development challenge. The problem is more acute in low-income water-scarce hard-to-reach areas such as the southwest coastal region of Bangladesh, where complex hydrogeological conditions and adverse water quality contribute to a highly vulnerable and insecure water environment. Following the background, this study investigated the challenges and potential solutions to drinking water insecurity in a water-scarce area of southwest coastal Bangladesh using a mixed-methods approach. The findings revealed that water insecurity arises from unimproved, deteriorated, unaffordable, and unreliable sources that have significant time and distance burdens. High rates of technical dysfunction of the existing water infrastructure contribute to water insecurity as well. Consequently, safely managed water services are accessible to only 12% of the population, whereas 64% of the population does not have basic water. To reach the SDG 6.1 target, this underserved community needs well-functioning readily accessible water infrastructure with formal institutional arrangement rather than self-governance, which seems unsuccessful in this low-income context. This study will help the government and its development partners in implementing SDG action plans around investments to a reliable supply of safe water to the people living in water-scarce hard-to-reach coastal areas.

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