The Material Culture of Water: Transportation, Storage, and Consumption in Niamey, Niger

Stoler

2019

American J Hum Biol

Objectives: Over half of the world's population (4 billion people) experience severe water scarcity at least one month per year, while half a billion people experience severe water scarcity throughout the year. Despite progress from national and global interventions, a staggering proportion of the Global South remains water insecure. Rapid urban growth and associated demographic changes, climate change, and governance failure have also fostered the growth and expansion of urban informal settlements and slums where widespread poverty and environmental hazards exacerbate the impact of water insecurity on health. This article reflects on the interactions between water insecurity and urban poverty in the Global South across four categories of health outcomes: gastrointestinal diseases, mosquito-borne diseases, injuries, and mental illness. These examples highlight the mechanisms through which urban poverty exacerbates the adverse health effects of water insecurity.Methods: The four selected health outcomes were chosen a priori to represent two communicable conditions with well-developed literatures, and two noncommunicable conditions with newer literatures that have emerged over the last decade. We conducted a narrative literature review of scholarly and gray literature appearing between January 2000 and April 2019 using several online scholarly databases. Results: Gastrointestinal diseases, mosquito-borne diseases, injuries, and mental illness all exemplified the relationship between water insecurity and urban poverty through human biological pathways. For each of the four health categories, we identified frontiers for human biology research contributions to the water-poverty-health nexus. Conclusions: We discuss our findings in the context of three crosscutting themes that merit innovative research approaches: stressor interactions and trade-offs, exposure thresholds, and intervention efficacy. We reiterate that the global burden of disease associated with water insecurity cannot be addressed in isolation from efforts to alleviate extreme poverty.

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Water insecurity and urban poverty in the Global South: Implications for health and human biology

Stoler

2019

American J Hum Biol

“…For the majority in Niamey who are not directly connected to the piped network, and who thus obtain water from public water taps (standpipes), neighbours, or vendors who get water from public water taps and deliver it to households for a fee, access is fragmented, inconsistent, difficult and expensive. In fact, those with a direct connection pay less per litre of water than those who get water indirectly; in other words, water is cheaper for the wealthy than for the poor (Hungerford 2012; Keough and Youngstedt 2014; Youngstedt et al 2016) (see Table 1).…”

Section: Water Privatization and The Rise Of Sachet Water In Niameymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The mobile vendors in our sample almost always worked for people who owned refrigerators. In contrast to the economy of home water delivery, which is entirely controlled by men (Keough and Youngstedt 2014; Youngstedt et al 2016), women in Niamey have creatively – and virtually invisibly – inserted themselves into the commodity chain by purchasing sachets in bulk and refrigerators, and then sending their children out to sell the cold bags. Adult women, especially those who are married with children and extended families, cannot spend eight or more hours a day walking the streets to sell water.…”

Section: The ‘Pure Water’ Backstory: a Commodity Chain And Value Chaimentioning

confidence: 99%

‘Pure water’ in Niamey, Niger: the backstory of sachet water in a landscape of waste

Keough¹,

Youngstedt²

2018

Africa

Self Cite

This article examines the commodity chain and value chain of half-litre water bags (referred to as ‘pure water’ or ‘sachet water’) in Niamey, Niger. We begin with a focus on the discarded bag and work backwards through the commodity chain to consumers, vendors and finally producers of ‘pure water’ to reveal the underlying power structures, cultural perceptions and assumptions that ultimately resulted in the discarded bag and landscapes of waste. We assert that the economic value of the plastic bag, largely assigned during the stages of its production, is based on four characteristics: the label, the temperature of the water, the time of year it is sold, and the apparent ‘purity’ of the water. We further demonstrate how characteristics of economic value are steeped in cultural perceptions and social relationships in Niamey. Using interviews with agents and actors at all levels of the commodity chain, we reveal how this local, hybrid system is connected to and affected by larger, global economic and political forces.

“…Studies from sub‐Saharan Africa have noted how households commonly patch together water from a variety of sources, yet the number of households relying on sachet water as a primary drinking source, rather than a supplemental source, continues to rise. The best data available on population‐wide sachet water consumption come from Ghana, where multiple national‐level surveys have followed the lead of the Ghana Census in tracking it as a growing primary drinking water source.…”

Section: Consumer Trendsmentioning

confidence: 99%

From curiosity to commodity: a review of the evolution of sachet drinking water in West Africa

Stoler

2017

WIREs Water

The private sector continues to play an important role in filling local drinking water supply gaps across the Global South. In West Africa, a perfect storm of rapid population growth, infrastructure mismanagement, and globalization of consumer markets has resulted in the advent of an entire new industry around packaged water, primarily ‘sachet water’ sold in mechanically sealed plastic sleeves. Most local governments and international development agencies have historically perceived sachet water as a passing trend, but it has quickly become a primary drinking water source for the majority of households in many urban areas and continues to spread throughout the region and world. Sachet water is now an important component of regional water security, although with attendant issues related to governance, quality control, environmental pollution, and social justice. This paper reviews the seminal literature on sachet water in West Africa, with particular emphasis on Ghana and Nigeria, where most studies have focused. This review synthesizes governance issues, consumer and industry trends, and the latest on product quality in the literature from 2011 to 2016, with 2010 approximating an inflection point for the modernization of the industry. The ability of many West African nations to achieve universal access to safe drinking water may depend on their willingness to understand and incorporate the sachet water industry into an integrated drinking water platform. WIREs Water 2017, 4:e1206. doi: 10.1002/wat2.1206 This article is categorized under: Engineering Water > Planning Water Engineering Water > Sustainable Engineering of Water Human Water > Water Governance