What are the factors that push households over thresholds of water insecurity -- from lower levels to more severe experiences? How do we measure this shift, and what are the implications for public policy, specifically in Brazil? These questions are at the center of our paper on urban household water insecurity using survey and qualitative …
Continue reading New publication on water insecurity in Brazil
I am happy to post this mini-documentary on the social conflicts and land grabbing as a result of the wind-power boom in Ceara, Brazil. Low-carbon projects are not inherently socially just. Innovation requires not only technological change but attention to the social and economic structures - and how they are either changed, reinforced and for …
"Do not take our water." A simple message. Don't take our water. Over the past ten months, communities in the peripheral northwest region of Fortaleza, Brazil have begun to organize against the state's "water security plan" to manage the five-year drought for the metropolitan region of 3.5 million people. The plan, which attends to the …
Continue reading Emerging water conflict in Fortaleza, Brazil
Calamitous drought in the Brazilian Sertão (Backlands) inspired songs, poetry, and oral traditions that infuse culture and society. Migrants leaving the desiccated soil populate the regions cities, driving metropolitan populations since the 1970s. Reading the stories is one thing. Visiting the region, which faces a five-year drought, is an entirely different experience. Dried reservoirs are scattered …
Here are a few photos from my research trip to Ceará. My time there quickly passed by as my colleagues scheduled many activities and meetings almost every day of the trip -- including unsuccessful visits to register my visa! Leave that for October. I forgot about the Brazilian bureaucracy -- Brazil is not for beginners, …
Calamitous drought in the Brazilian Sertão (Backlands) inspired songs, poetry, and oral traditions that infuse culture and society. Migrants leaving the desiccated soil populate the regions cities, driving metropolitan populations since the 1970s. Reading the stories is one thing. Visiting the region, which faces a five-year drought, is an entirely different experience. Dried reservoirs are scattered across the landscape, with …
Fortaleza, which is located on the Atlantic Coast, offers the opportunity to study water insecurity in Latin America. Unlike the mega-cities like Rio, Fortaleza and the smaller urban areas in the Northeast represent the everyday life far from the glow of Olympic glory or global Carnival. The residents, many of whom are immigrants or from …
Wendy Jepson 
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