Part One: Multifaceted Water Insecurity: Local and Regional Concerns for Health, Equity, and Justice

Multifaceted Water Insecurity: Local and Regional

Concerns for Health, Equity, and Justice, Part I

 

An SfAA Critical Conversation

CHAIRS: WILFONG, Matthew (ASU) and ROQUE,

Anais (OH State U)

BERARDO, Ramiro (Sch of Env & Natural Resources,

OH State U) “And Water For All…”

 

WILFONG, Matthew (ASU) and ROQUE, Anais (OH State U) Multifaceted

Water Insecurity: Local and Regional Concerns for Health, Equity, and Justice,

Parts I-II. Water’s essentiality for sustaining life allows it to pervade into every

aspect of the everyday, taking various shapes, forms, and identities. As a result,

water challenges, as seen through drought, flooding, and within household

experiences, produce a profound multiplicity of effects on our everyday

lives where water plays a physical, cultural, and symbolic role. In this critical

conversation, we seek to explore the multifaceted nature of water with a focus

on insecurity - inadequate access to safe and reliable water for human health

and ecological well being - including the underlying political, economic, and

material causes and the resulting sociocultural and biophysical impacts. We

aim to investigate the socioeconomic and sociopolitical assemblages that create various forms of water insecurity (affordability, reliability, adequacy,

and/or safety of water) and the resulting effects on environmental and human

health outcomes. To do this, this critical conversation will focus on highlighting

water insecurity within the local tri-state (Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana) and

Appalachian regions. The first session of this critical conservation, we invite local

community groups, practitioners, and scholars to present and discuss issues

surrounding water insecurity, the effects on public and environmental health,

and how applied anthropological research can help to address and overcome

these challenges. In our second session, we will present and view the film “And

Water For All…” by scholar Ramiro Berardo focused on water affordability

in the state of Ohio with a focus on governmental and non-governmental

actors towards ensuring water security in the present and future. This will

be followed by a discussion about the film and the overarching concerns of

water insecurity within the local region. Throughout this critical conversation,

we seek to illuminate the continued need for applied anthropological work,

research, and support towards investigating and solving issues focused on the

equity and justice of water insecurity at the local, regional, and global scales.

 

Session took place in Cincinnati, OH at the 83rd Annual Meeting of the Society for Applied Anthropology in March 2023.