Water injustice Paper

This first week of the class

focuses on two main questions:

what is meant by

ideas of justice,

and how do these ideas relate

to water and sanitation?

We will look at videos of

striking cases of injustice

and begin to unpack some of

the issues that are involved.

Some of these cases

will be analyzed further

in subsequent weeks.

You will be introduced to a

range of ideas about justice,

including distributive and

procedural justice, fairness,

recognition, and participation.

This first week is organized

into four sections,

each introduced by a lecture.

In this first lecture,

I want to give you

an overview of basic stuff

about technologies, society,

and water.

There are videos to illustrate

bits of this overview,

then the second

section of the week

is about ideas of

justice and poverty

relevant to water

and sanitation.

The third section

examines a declaration

about water justice

and some examples

that I hope will help you

apply ideas to empirical cases.

Finally, in the

fourth section, we

examine ideas that begin to

illuminate attempts to achieve

water and sanitation justice.

In this first lecture,

I want to explore

some elements of

inequality, describe

some of the technologies and

social arrangements required

for making water and

sanitation, and get

you started reading the

first reading of the week.

The central idea running

through this class

is that the processes

and practices

for getting water

and using sanitation

can reproduce inequality

and injustice.

Access to land and water

in California, for example,

makes some people very rich.

By contrast, the

indignity, time, and effort

to get water and use sanitation

in many parts of the developing

world and in some

parts of California

reproduces class, gender,

and ethnic subordination.

Here is one image of

inequality from urban Mexico.

On the right side

of this picture

there is water for

swimming pools,

even in the highest levels

of this apartment block,

and there is private

sanitation for those

who can afford to live there.

On the left side,

the people living

in this shanty town

or informal settlement

have difficult access

to water and sanitation.

The two sides of the picture

are connected in many ways.

Sociologist Sanjay Shrivastava

refers to these connections

as entanglements.

Many people living on

the left of the picture--

workers, cleaners,

and childminders,

guards, plumbers,

and electricians--

in apartments such as

those on the right side,

and in government and

corporate offices.

In many cities of the global

south, from 1/3 to 2/3

of the population, live

in informal settlements,

and they may constitute

a large part of the work

force of the city, but the

practices required for them

to get water and

use sanitation are

undignified and

lacking privacy, risky,

and required a lot

of time and exertion.

My guess is that this

looks unjust to you,

as it does to me.

It is perhaps one reason you

decided to take this class.

We will say more

about such contrasts

as the course unfolds.

So I want to talk about

the making of water.

Water is a familiar

part of all our lives.

We take it for

granted, except when

there is too much or too little,

or when it is contaminated.

In 2016 in Louisiana,

there was too much.

At those times and

in those places,

water becomes a matter

of life and death.

Mostly however, we

take it for granted.

It is a routine universal

part of our everyday lives.

Nature supplies this

substance that we

use for washing, drinking,

cooking, bathing,

and much more.

In elementary school

we learn to call it

by its molecular name, H2O.

But no, this is misleading.

Even in the best

of times much work

is required to make water

suitable for the many different

uses and to avoid catastrophe.

Water is made by nature,

people, and technology.

It is a hybrid of work

done by the natural world,

social institutions, and

diverse technologies.

Here are some examples,

starting with dams.

Dams store water from rain

and snow in times of plenty

for use in dry times,

also to avoid floods

and to generate

hydroelectric power.

Here is the Folsom Dam, 25

miles northeast of Sacramento.

Built on the American

River in 1955

by the US Army

Corps of Engineers,

it stores water for

irrigated agriculture,

to reduce floods in Sacramento,

to generate electricity,

and for city water supply.

Then treatment plants

are needed to provide

water free of waterborne disease

for drinking and cooking.

In most parts of the

industrialized world, that

is the high income countries

of the global north,

including the United

States, Europe, and Japan,

domestic or drinking water goes

through treatment something

like this.

Several chemicals are mixed in

to kill disease and encourage

the formation of sediment.

Storage tanks and filtration

complete the removal

of sediment, then there is a

further round of disinfection

before the treated water is

put into pipes for delivery

to homes.

So the water most of us use

requires dams and treatment

plants to store water and

kill disease, pipe networks

to deliver it to our home,

water authorities that

collect revenue, and government

to regulate those institutions.

Water sources in many parts of

the non industrialized world

are distant and contaminated.

Carrying water for household

use can be stressful,

time consuming, and undignified.

Here is a short video segment

about a woman collecting

water in rural Kenya.

[TRIBAL SINGING]

On an overlooking hilltop just

outside the popular Nakuru Game

Park, sits the village of

Joru Most tourists do not

see the rural villages

like Joru when

they come from photo safaris.

When the rains are

generous, the small plots

produce moderate quantities of

maize, peanuts, and vegetables.

Life is good, but can be tedious

and an uncertain daily struggle

for survival.

Esther is 72 years old.

From the time Esther

was a little girl,

it was her chore to fetch

water for the family.

Pointing to a distant

spot, she says,

every morning I would walk to

the stream in the valley below.

There she would fill a

five gallon water vessel,

sling it over her back,

and carry it home.

I trot 5 and 1/2 kilometers

back up the hill she tells us.

I did not get home

until the afternoon.

Even then, I could

never carry enough water

for all my family needs.

There is cooking,

washing, and cleaning.

The five gallon jug Esther

fills each day weighs just

over 40 pounds with

the water in it.

Esther tells us the

most difficult part

was not the weight of the

load, the hardest part

is when I bring home

illness and misery.

The water is not clean.

There are nights I

would cry thinking

about the sickness my children

would get from the water.

The stream where

Esther has drawn

water for nearly seven

decades is a hub of activity.

A woman is washing her

clothes in the stream.

As she rinses the laundry,

she creates a soapy lather

in the flowing water.

A man walks past leading

his cow into the stream.

The cow casually

defecates in the stream,

as it drinks from the

brown, turbid water.

Just a few feet downstream

from the cow, another man

is filling a five

gallon water jug.

He will carry the foul

water home for his family.

They will use the

unsanitary water

for drinking,

cooking, and washing.

In village after

village, this scene

is repeated throughout

rural Kenya.

In dozens of

communities like Joru,

the only source

of drinking water

is a polluted stream

or a stagnant swamp.

Women, and sometimes men,

carry water for household use

in many parts of the world.

Here are pictures from Brazil

and Egypt, Tanzania and India,

China and Mozambique,

Bangladesh and Haiti.

OK, I want you to do a

thought experiment here.

The work is hard, undignified,

and time consuming.

Imagine what would happen if

the water supply to your home

or residence were cut off.

How much water would you

need for your laundry?

Many families in

the developing world

need several large

containers of water each day.

In Kenyan cities where

I have done research,

these containers are

called Jerry Cans,

and they weigh 44 pounds.

For washing clothes, five

or more Jerry Cans of water

may be needed.

Could you carry that?

How long would it take?

Bathing, another two

Jerry Cans, perhaps.

Washing dishes,

maybe not so much,

but you need a lot of water.

Then, if the water had to come

from a well or a stream, how

long would that take?

And in practice, we use

much more water every day

than families in

Mexico, India, or Kenya.

Daunting, huh?

So I want to move from that

to talk about sanitation.

Sanitation generally

refers to the provision

of facilities and services

for the safe disposal

of human urine and feces.

Inadequate sanitation is a major

cause of disease worldwide,

and improving

sanitation is known

to have a significant

beneficial impact on health,

both in households and

across communities.

Improved sanitation is a

key part of the second story

I told, achieving longer lives.

Almost 30% of the

world's population

have poor access to sanitation.

This affects women and

girls with particular force.

In rural areas and

urban shantytowns

of the global south, women and

girls may have to get up early

or wait until night to find

space to defecate and urinate

in relative privacy.

This late night search

is risky and undignified.

It is in itself an element

of gender subordination

and poverty.

We will talk more about

this in subsequent weeks.

So I want to say a few words

about water governance.

The governance and

management of water

has been required from the

earliest human societies.

Diversion of water

for irrigation

required early

communities, for example,

in the American

Southwest, to get together

to build structures and

canals, and to organize who

should get the water and when.

Some of the earliest

social institutions

may have arisen around water.

Even in big cities like New

York in the late 19th century,

some of the earliest

city institutions

and their financial

arrangements were established

to build water infrastructure.

Businesses in New

York at that time

were having to pay

heavy insurance

against frequent

devastating fires

and many were concerned

about the spread

of waterborne disease, so

municipal organizations

were formed to finance and

build the infrastructure

to supply water in adequate

quantities to fight fire

and to provide clean

drinking water.

These questions around water

institutions and governance

will be raised

throughout the class

as we explore the ideas of

water and sanitation justice.

What uses consume

the most water?

I think this is useful

as a starting point

to explore the question of

what uses consume the most

water worldwide.

Though a huge amount

of time and energy

is required to carry

water for household use

in many parts of the

world, much more water

is used in agriculture.

This figure shows

how much water is

used for domestic or household

use, industry and agriculture

in the world as a whole,

and in the high, middle,

and low income

parts of the world.

Overall, agriculture uses about

70% of available fresh water.

Relatively less water is needed

for industry and household use,

but that tends to rise as

societies develop and incomes

and consumption patterns change.

In California, water for

agriculture uses 80% to 90%

of our fresh water.

Social and technical

architecture

is needed to deliver that

irrigation water to fields.

You are probably familiar with

the devices delivering water

for irrigation in California.

Then there are many large

dams storing and canals

delivering water,

and in drought years,

particularly, much

water is pumped

from groundwater aquifers.

All this has required

cooperation and funding.

Much of all this

is now contentious.

Many environmentalists

oppose dams

and think too much water

is used in agriculture.

Many farmers think the

opposite, that too little water

is available.

During California's

drought, signs

appear in many fields arguing

that farmers need more water

to create employment

and produce cheap food.

Many signs blame Congress, the

California state government,

and Jerry Brown

for water storage.

Of course, it is much more

complicated than that.

We will talk more about these

questions in a later week.

After this lecture, I want you

to watch a 25 minute video made

in 2016 by Al Jazeera.

It asks the question

what can be done

to stop global water scarcity?

There is fascinating footage

of water use and collection

in different parts of

the world, and discussion

with several people, including

a journalist, an economist,

and a sociologist.

This video illustrates

a key issue

we will be discussing

throughout the course.

Is water availability

an issue of scarcity

as much writing suggests,

or of access, or both?

How does the

privatization of water

contribute to issues

of water justice?

As you watch, please look out

for scarcity versus justice

and access, footage

of collecting water,

debates about commercialization

and privatization.

Now I'd like you to take a look

at the first reading, The Idea

of Justice by Amartya Sen.

It's an important

but dense reading.

In the next lecture, I will

bring out some key points

from this reading.

Start reading

sections one and two.

What do Sen and [INAUDIBLE]

mean by justice?

How do they arrive at that idea?

OK, see you again

in a little while.