Localizing resource insecurities: A biocultural perspective on water and wellbeing

Abstract

A biocultural approach provides an emerging framework for clarifying the mechanisms that connect water security to human health and wellbeing. Five basic tenets of the biocultural approach are outlined: The focus on the local, the centrality of culture, the notion of embodied disadvantage, a concern with proximate mechanisms as a means to test theorized pathways, and recognition of intersecting and potentially amplified (syndemic) risks. From a review of both new and dispersed biocultural literature on household water, four key themes emerge: (a) individual vulnerabilities to the biological effects of water insecurity are shaped by cultural practices; (b) water insecurity is a powerful biocultural stressor on mental health; (c) water insecurity mediates between low power and worse health within communities, and through multiple mechanisms; (d) the household is a nexus for food–water interactions, each likely worsening each other and health through syndemic relationships. This sets an agenda for a biocultural approach to the household as a localizing nexus for manifesting the very human costs to mental and physical health of managing under conditions of extreme household resource insecurity. This article is categorized under: Engineering of Water > Planning Water Human Water > Water Governance Human Water > Water as Imagined and Represented

Water and mental health

“…Of course, these mechanisms likely rarely operate fully independently. More likely, they contribute to iterative, layering and compounding risks for distress and mental ill-health (Bisung & Elliott, 2017b;Brewis, Piperata, et al, 2020;Workman & Ureksoy, 2017). For example, social humiliation, perceived role inadequacies, frustrated autonomy, and material uncertainty could all coincide to elevate the distressing family conflicts, including triggering of intimate partner violence.…”

“…Many of these people live in water-insecure settings. Common mental disorders represent a major barrier to achieving Sustainable Development Goal 3 (health and wellbeing) (Tsai & Tomlinson, 2015), and this challenge is connected in myriad ways to Sustainable Development Goal 6 (water and sanitation) (Adams, Stoler, & Adams, 2020;Bisung & Elliott, 2017b;Brewis, Piperata, Thompson, & Wutich, 2020;Rosinger & Brewis, 2020).…”

The toll of household water insecurity on health and human biology: Current understandings and future directions

“…Water excess can also indirectly shape biology (Ahern et al, 2005). For example, crop destruction can be deleterious to nutritional status (Brewis et al, 2020;Ringler & Dias, 2020). When yields are less than expected, there is less to eat and/or less income from the sale of crops.…”

“…Ethnographic evidence along with cross-sectional studies demonstrates a clear association between water insecurity and food insecurity (Brewis et al, 2020;Collins et al, 2019;Wutich & Brewis, 2014). To date, data suggest stronger plausibility that water insecurity is a driver of food insecurity than the other way around (Boateng et al, 2020;Brewis et al, 2020).…”

“…Ethnographic evidence along with cross-sectional studies demonstrates a clear association between water insecurity and food insecurity (Brewis et al, 2020;Collins et al, 2019;Wutich & Brewis, 2014). To date, data suggest stronger plausibility that water insecurity is a driver of food insecurity than the other way around (Boateng et al, 2020;Brewis et al, 2020). Additionally, cross-cultural qualitative data support the notion that increased household water insecurity affects maternal and child feeding practices and breastfeeding practices, which may lead to variation in risk of dehydration of children or malnutrition (Schuster et al, 2020).…”