RUI: Cultural Influences in Water Management Strategies

Vassar College, Poughkeepsie NY

Investigators

Abstract

Effective water governance structures are critical to preventing water stress, which can have profound implications for stable governance and public trust. This project explores how water management strategies and the public responses to those efforts are effectively undertaken in a large, water-scarce urban context. To understand the ways in which organizational and infrastructural decisions are made in such circumstances, the researcher asks the role that local cultural beliefs and practices have in shaping the development of new water technologies. Data from this research will improve scientific understanding in similar situations where water access is stressed because of the demands of a rapidly expanding urban population. Dr. Martha Kaplan of Vassar College examines the impact of culture on infrastructural decisions and water management strategies by studying state policy and popular water use in a water-scarce context. The research takes place in Singapore, a Southeast Asian island city-state that is has no natural aquifers, and a growing urban population. Originally dependent on imported water from neighboring Malaysia and rain water, they have added NEWater (recycled sewer water) and desalinated water to the public water supply. Research will analyze (1) state water management, including media campaigns to make recycled "NEWater" acceptable, (2) popular responses to state initiatives and (3) everyday engagements with drinking water. Methods include participant observation, oral history, structured interviews, and drinking water censuses (an innovative, systematic method developed by the PI working with an undergraduate researcher in 2007). As a project funded under the Research in Undergraduate Institutions solicitation, up to four undergraduate students will participate in the research, receiving training in key anthropological research methods. This project is committed to the principle that a well-informed public can have a key role in determining policy. Scientific publication and popularly accessible information about the cultural diversity of drinking water systems and environmental perspectives can enable citizens in any society to make better choices in their everyday water practices, and better inform effective public policy efforts. In sum, this project aims to trains future anthropologists, and produce accessible studies of plural and different water cultures.