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Abstract ObjectivesFood and water insecurity have both been demonstrated as acute and chronic stressors and undermine human health and development. A basic untested proposition is that they chronically coexist, and that household water insecurity is a fundamental driver of household food insecurity. MethodsWe provide a preliminary assessment of their association using cross‐sectional data from 27 sites with highly diverse forms of water insecurity in 21 low‐ and middle‐income countries across Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and the Americas (N = 6691 households). Household food insecurity and its subdomains (food quantity, food quality, and anxiety around food) were estimated using the Household Food Insecurity Access Scale; water insecurity and subdomains (quantity, quality, and opportunity costs) were estimated based on similar self‐reported data. ResultsIn multilevel generalized linear mixed‐effect modeling (GLMM), composite water insecurity scores were associated with higher scores for all subdomains of food insecurity. Rural households were better buffered against water insecurity effects on food quantity and urban ones for food quality. Similarly, higher scores for all subdomains of water insecurity were associated with greater household food insecurity. ConclusionsConsidering the diversity of sites included in the modeling, the patterning supports a basic theory: household water insecurity chronically coexists with household food insecurity. Water insecurity is a more plausible driver of food insecurity than the converse. These findings directly challenge development practices in which household food security interventions are often enacted discretely from water security ones.
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Can household water sharing advance water security? An integrative review of water entitlements and entitlement failures
Abstract An increasing number of studies find that water sharing—the non-market transfer of privately held water between households—is a ubiquitous informal practice around the world and a primary way that households respond to water insecurity. Yet, a key question about household water sharing remains: is water sharing a viable path that can help advance household water security? Or should water sharing be understood as a symptom of waterinsecurity in wait for more formalized solutions? Here, we address this question by applying Sen’s entitlement framework in an integrative review of empirical scholarship on household water sharing. Our review shows that when interhousehold water sharing is governed by established and well-functioning norms it can serve as a reliable transfer entitlement that bolsters household water security. However, when water sharing occurs outside of established norms (triggered by broader entitlement failures) it is often associated with significant emotional distress that may exacerbate conditions of waterinsecurity. These findings suggest that stable, norm-based water sharing arrangements may offer a viable, adaptive solution to households facing water insecurity. Nevertheless, more scholarship is needed to better understand when and how norm-based water transfer entitlements fail, the capacity of water sharing practices to evolve into lasting normative entitlements, and the impact of interhousehold water sharing on intrahousehold water security.
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- Award ID(s):
- 2143766
- PAR ID:
- 10560504
- Publisher / Repository:
- IOP Publishing
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Environmental Research Letters
- Volume:
- 20
- Issue:
- 1
- ISSN:
- 1748-9326
- Format(s):
- Medium: X Size: Article No. 013003
- Size(s):
- Article No. 013003
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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