Josh Foster– Undergraduate – Environmental Science
Residential Health Impacts Associated with the Decline of the Aral Sea
The Aral Sea was once the fourth largest lake in the world. By the end of 1990, the Aral Sea has seen a reduction of 80% water volume from anthropogenic disturbance and climate change. The reduction of the lake surface has been a result of irrigation practices, evaporation, drought and desertification of the two inlets of the lake. This has had a negative impact on the health of the surrounding population, as the Aral Sea has been subject to numerous pesticides and fertilizers from agricultural runoff, heavy metals from mine tailings, and an increase in salinity. Declining water levels have exposed the lake bottom, increasing the amount of dust in the region, forming airborne hazards from the various pollutants that have been retained in the regions soil. The people’s food source in the Aral Sea Drainage Basin (ASDB) has also been contaminated and been shown to carry high amounts of pesticides and heavy metals which cause negative health complications. In this paper I will be detailing the negative health effects that the people in the ASDB are experiencing, as well as the disruption in the way of life since a majority of the lake has dried up.
Lea Gifford– Undergraduate – Geography
Maori-Pakeha Co-Governance for Managing Fresh Water in New Zealand
For decades, New Zealand’s Pakeha (ethnically European New Zealanders) have systematically excluded the indigenous population, or Maori, from involvement in the management of the country’s freshwater resources. In the midst of the climate crisis, degraded water quality and decreasing water quantity among other issues, New Zealand is in need of new ways for thinking about and managing their fresh water. With their own unique understanding and values pertaining to water, Maori can provide this much needed alternative perspective. This project investigates how Maori-Pakeha co-governance can improve freshwater management in New Zealand. I will examine the case studies of Rangitaiki River and Whanganui River to highlight the differences in outcomes when Maori are involved in management and when they are not. I will also explore how Maori involvement can improve river water quality and quantity. I will then make an argument for why co-governance is the best option for obtaining and retaining the benefits associated with Maori involvement.
Megan McLeroy- Undergraduate - Environmental Science
The Role of WaSH in Maternal and Newborn Health in East Africa
Having access to proper water, sanitation, and hygiene (WaSH) plays a critical role in maternal and newborn health in East African countries. When adequate WaSH practices are unattainable, there is a rise in maternal and infant morbidity and mortality. Low quality and minimal access to WaSH leads to diarrhoeal mortality, which makes up 10% of all child deaths. This is important because clean water improves the health of mothers and newborns during the time they are most susceptible to illness. To understand how WaSH affects the health of mothers and babies, studies from other researchers were conducted to understand the quality of WaSH and the access they had during their time in hospitals and post birth. This poster will examine WaSH in Uganda, Malawi, and Tanzania, comparing access, education, and practices that relate WaSH to maternal and newborn health.
Noel Vineyard – Graduate- Geography
Capitalizing on Water Capitalism: The Development of Free Market Water Governance and Mining Development in Chile
The purpose of this poster & paper is to examine the ways in which Chile’s radical free market approach to water governance has shaped the nation’s lucrative copper and lithium mining industries. Beginning with the 1980 Constitution, Chile in the later part of the 20th century advanced an economic project seeking to privatize the nation’s surface water resources. The 1981 Water Act that followed transfigured the nation’s water rights into a new kind of saleable real estate to be owned by those with the will and capital to buy them. For the multinational mining companies developing Chile's copper and lithium resources, this presented new opportunities for accumulation at the expense of many of the nation’s poor water rights holders. In an open market situation, small-scale, indigenous and subsistence agricultural water rights holders no longer wielded the financial or social capital required to secure their rights and push back against environmental damages. The ease by which international mining operations could supplant local hydrosocial structures and disposes local peoples of water within a free market water system raise important questions about how such behavior by extractive industry may play out in other parts of the world seeking to neo-liberalize their own water systems.
McKenna Wickware- Undergraduate - Environmental Science
“Volga, Volga, Our Pride!”: How a History of Poor Water Governance has Jeopardized Europe’s Longest River
The Volga River, the longest river in Russia and the topic of multiple famous Russian folk songs once was the country’s pride and lifeblood but may now be constituted as one of the world’s most critically polluted rivers. Water pollution is one of the biggest environmental issues in Russia. Considering how many people rely on the Volga, and the fact that it drains into the international Caspian Sea, the pollution of the river is quite a pressing matter. The Volga River is of great social and economic importance to Russia. The basin contains approximately 40% of the Russian population and is tied to 45% of the country's industrial and agricultural production. A long history of poor water governance, rapid industrialization, political conflicts, and lack of environmental care have led to this issue that has far reaching effects on not only Russia’s population, but the environment overall. Although in recent years monitoring of the river has improved, more mitigation is needed to combat the anthropogenic impacts of the 20th century. In order to convey the importance of this issue, this project examines the factors that have contributed to water quality issues of the Volga River and what could be done to address this further.