TY - JOUR
T1 - Water insecurity
T2 - An agenda for research and call to action for human biology
AU - Wutich, Amber
N1 - Funding Information:
Much of my recent thinking has been supported by NSF grant BCS‐1759972 HWISE RCN: Building A Community of Practice for Household Water Insecurity Research (HWISE). The Global Ethnohydrology Study work is funded as part of the ASU Center for Global Health and under NSF grant SES‐1462086 DMUU: DCDC III: Transformational Solutions for Urban Water Sustainability Transitions in the Colorado River Basin and NSF grant DEB‐1637590: Central‐Arizona Phoenix Long‐Term Ecological Research. The fieldwork in Bolivia was funded by the National Science Foundation Cultural Anthropology Program (Award BCS‐03 14395), Fulbright‐IIE, the Tinker Foundation, Paul and Polly Doughty, and the University of Florida Center for Latin American Studies. I gratefully acknowledge the many contributions of Wilda Valencia, Richard Aguilar, Wilfredo Valencia, and Ashley Potter‐Wutich to my work in Bolivia. I thank my colleagues Alex Brewis, Russ Bernard, Wendy Jepson, and Katie Hinde for their support and insights as I wrote this address.
Funding Information:
Much of my recent thinking has been supported by NSF grant BCS-1759972 HWISE RCN: Building A Community of Practice for Household Water Insecurity Research (HWISE). The Global Ethnohydrology Study work is funded as part of the ASU Center for Global Health and under NSF grant SES-1462086 DMUU: DCDC III: Transformational Solutions for Urban Water Sustainability Transitions in the Colorado River Basin and NSF grant DEB-1637590: Central-Arizona Phoenix Long-Term Ecological Research. The fieldwork in Bolivia was funded by the National Science Foundation Cultural Anthropology Program (Award BCS-03 14395), Fulbright-IIE, the Tinker Foundation, Paul and Polly Doughty, and the University of Florida Center for Latin American Studies. I gratefully acknowledge the many contributions of Wilda Valencia, Richard Aguilar, Wilfredo Valencia, and Ashley Potter-Wutich to my work in Bolivia. I thank my colleagues Alex Brewis, Russ Bernard, Wendy Jepson, and Katie Hinde for their support and insights as I wrote this address.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
PY - 2020/1/1
Y1 - 2020/1/1
N2 - Water insecurity—the lack of adequate and safe water for a healthy and productive life—is one of the greatest threats facing humans in the coming century. By 2030, half of the world is expected to be living in water-stressed conditions, given current climate change scenarios. A key goal of the UN Water Action Decade and Sustainable Development Goal 6 is to improve water security for the three billion people globally affected, but the future looks grim. For many communities, from Cape Town, South Africa to Flint, United States, the imagined dystopian future of severe water shortages has already arrived—shaped not so much by lack of water, but by aging infrastructure, underfunded utilities, social exclusion, politicized commodification, and environmental racism. Stepping off from my biocultural research in Cochabamba, Bolivia, I discuss how recent research is dramatically advancing our understanding of water insecurity, such as new findings around the biocultural causes and consequences of dehydration, contamination, and water stress. But, much more needs be done to support local communities in creating fair and just water systems. I discuss how human biologists can make crucial contributions toward the advancement of a much-needed science of water insecurity, while highlighting some practical and ethical challenges to advancing a core mission of providing safe, sufficient water to all.
AB - Water insecurity—the lack of adequate and safe water for a healthy and productive life—is one of the greatest threats facing humans in the coming century. By 2030, half of the world is expected to be living in water-stressed conditions, given current climate change scenarios. A key goal of the UN Water Action Decade and Sustainable Development Goal 6 is to improve water security for the three billion people globally affected, but the future looks grim. For many communities, from Cape Town, South Africa to Flint, United States, the imagined dystopian future of severe water shortages has already arrived—shaped not so much by lack of water, but by aging infrastructure, underfunded utilities, social exclusion, politicized commodification, and environmental racism. Stepping off from my biocultural research in Cochabamba, Bolivia, I discuss how recent research is dramatically advancing our understanding of water insecurity, such as new findings around the biocultural causes and consequences of dehydration, contamination, and water stress. But, much more needs be done to support local communities in creating fair and just water systems. I discuss how human biologists can make crucial contributions toward the advancement of a much-needed science of water insecurity, while highlighting some practical and ethical challenges to advancing a core mission of providing safe, sufficient water to all.
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U2 - 10.1002/ajhb.23345
DO - 10.1002/ajhb.23345
M3 - Article
C2 - 31697009
AN - SCOPUS:85073236813
SN - 1042-0533
VL - 32
JO - American Journal of Human Biology
JF - American Journal of Human Biology
IS - 1
M1 - e23345
ER -