Doctoral Dissertation Research: The Effects of Water Contamination on Water Valuation in a Post-Disaster Context

事实上，所有的生命都依赖于水，这使得水成为我们这个星球上最重要的物质之一，世界各地的人们都在组织各种方式来获取他们生存所需的水。与此同时，洪水、干旱和污染标志着水在几个方面也会对生命构成威胁。人类活动--如管理不善、旅行、污染、冲突和不断扩大的社会差距--也可能导致水的潜在危险，包括致命的水传播疾病的传播。饮用水质量的突然或戏剧性破坏暴露了人类珍视这种宝贵资源的重要方面。为了制定计划、政策和基础设施，确保所有美国人都能获得安全的水，关键是不仅要了解导致饮用水污染的相互作用的人类和环境因素，而且要了解个人和社会适应水危机的方式。海地新出现的霍乱为研究人与水之间的动态关系提供了一个典范案例。霍乱是一种通过水传播的疾病，会导致大量腹泻，并可能因迅速失去液体而死亡。调查人员于2008年开始前往海地，自2010年，也就是地震发生九个月后，那里的霍乱疫情开始进行研究。调查人员对当地背景的广泛了解、强大的联系网络以及用于比较的先前数据将促进即将进行的研究的成功实施和影响。这项研究将在海地圣马克沿海城市和周边农村地区进行，地点位于阿蒂博尼特河入海口附近。2010年10月，阿蒂博尼特河被霍乱细菌污染，引发了近代史上最大的霍乱疫情之一。尽管可以通过饮用干净的水来预防，通过及时补充水分来治疗，尽管国家和国际在救援工作上投入了大量资金，但许多海地人仍然容易受到感染。由于这种疾病现在是地方性疾病，霍乱的存在可能会促使海地的政治经济、管理和用水发生重大变化。调查人员将评估许多海地人的饮用水在多大程度上已经从可信的公共资源变成了市场商品、工业化产品或私人管理的商品。他们还将评估这些变化在当地和国际行为者的推动下是否正在改善获得安全饮用水的机会，特别是在穷人中。总部设在圣马克的调查人员将进行访谈、存档和基于参与者的研究，观察和参与日常生活、影子临床医生、水工程师和水企业家，并收集有关水质和家庭用水的定量数据。关于疾病、环境和人类社会相互影响方式的研究结果将阐明促进、延续或防止水不安全、贫困和疾病的因素。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The fact that all life depends on water makes it one of the most vital substances on our planet, with populations across the world organizing ways to access the water they need to survive. At the same time, flood, drought, and contamination mark several ways that water can also pose a threat to life. Human activity -- such as mismanagement, travel, pollution, conflict, and widening social disparities -- can also contribute to water's potential danger, including the spread of deadly waterborne diseases. Sudden or otherwise dramatic disruptions in drinking-water quality expose important ways that humans value such an invaluable resource. To develop programs, policies, and infrastructure that ensure all Americans access to safe water, it is critical to understand not only the interacting human and environmental factors that lead to drinking-water contamination, but also the ways that individuals and societies adjust to water crises.The new presence of cholera in Haiti provides an exemplary case through which to study the dynamic relationship between humans and water. Cholera is a waterborne disease that causes profuse diarrhea and possible death from rapid fluid loss. The investigators, who started traveling to Haiti in 2008, have been researching the cholera epidemic there since it began in 2010, nine months after the earthquake. The investigators' extensive understanding of the local context, robust network of contacts, and previous data with which to make comparisons will foster the successful implementation and impact of forthcoming research. The research will be conducted in the coastal city and surrounding rural areas of Saint-Marc, Haiti, near the mouth of the Artibonite River, which was contaminated with cholera bacteria in October 2010, sparking one of the largest cholera epidemics in recent history. Though preventable by drinking clean water and treatable with timely rehydration, and despite significant national and international investment in relief efforts, many Haitians remain vulnerable to infection. With the disease now endemic, the presence of cholera has likely prompted substantial changes in the political economy, management, and consumption of water in Haiti. Investigators will assess the extent to which drinking-water for many Haitians has gone from a trusted common resource to a market commodity, industrialized product, or privately administered good. They will also evaluate whether these changes, driven by local and international actors, are resulting in improved access to safe water, particularly among the poor. Based in Saint-Marc, investigators will conduct interviews, archival, and participant-based research, observe and participate in everyday life, shadow clinicians, water engineers, and water entrepreneurs, and collect quantitative data about water quality and household water use. Research findings about the ways disease, the environment, and human society influence one another will illuminate factors that promote, perpetuate, or protect against water insecurity, poverty, and illness.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.