Care and Equity in our Water Infrastructures
In this research team, we’ll be partnering with Heartlands Conservancy and the Jackie Joyner Kersee Food Agriculture and Nutrition Innovation Center (JJK-FAN) to help imagine more sustainable and socially just approaches to water infrastructures. The world economic forum has called water security “our most urgent challenge today.” Flash flooding, contaminants, disappearing habitats, and lack of access to clean drinking water make water infrastructure fundamental for the health of our communities, our access to food and clean drinking water, and our biodiversity.
JJK-FAN is situated in the Southern American Bottom, a collection of smaller watersheds that form the flood plain for the Mississippi River. These watersheds are pivotal to the health of several under-resourced towns in East St. Louis School District 189, including East St. Louis, Cahokia, Washington Park, Fairmont City, and Brooklyn, IL. Because ecosystems rarely follow municipal boundaries, it has been pivotal for these towns to collaborate across governmental boundaries to address flooding and wastewater management.
This area flows with a bioregional history directly tied to water infrastructure. People, plants, and animals have relied on the area’s rich alluvial soil, and the region is part of the Mississippi Flyway, a major migratory route for birds. The region was home to the Pre-Columbian Cahokia Mounds Civilization and its central trading network, and Mississippi’s frequent flooding may have led to the civilization’s decline. Later, deforestation of the riverbanks due to increasing steamboat transportation resulted in transformation to the river’s channel and to the floodplain itself. The 20th century brought expanding industries and pollutants to these Southern Bottom’s watersheds. Industrial attempts to mitigate flooding, including a complex levee system have resulted in increased flooding in some areas. We’ll dig into SIUE’s archives to trace the long history of connection between natural and build environments in the Southern American Bottom.
Faculty Reflection
The most prominent water issue where I grew up in Phoenix, Arizona, is drought. The Southern American Bottom, on the other hand, is much more effected by water flooding. This juxtaposition goes to show that the water issues our world faces are not uniform, but actually quite diverse. In this diversity are interconnected strands of causal factors and domino effects, which create a web that, looked at as a whole, encompass the “water crisis” we face on Earth. We will explore this web through its parts—specifically how they each effect different groups—so that you can choose an area that you would like to contribute a solution toward over these next two years.
Doing this type of work can be invigorating and empowering; however, at other points, it can be incredibly overwhelming. These moments of overwhelm, when prolonged, can lead to a feeling of defeat, often accompanied by other strong emotions, like anger or grief. It is important to create space for all of these emotions, and to recognize them as part of being a human on Earth processing very intense experiences. At the same time, I also believe that we do our best, most life-giving work when we are operating from a place of believing that change is possible, without feeling so much pressure to do it all ourselves that we burn ourselves out. So, as we embark on this journey of understanding and impacting the trajectory of the “water crisis”, on scales both big and small, I encourage you to remain present with where you are in each moment, and to create a cornerstone of belief in yourself and the world. You are not alone in this journey, and if you ever want to talk about these issues, or others, don’t hesitate to reach out to me, Dr. DeSpain, Sarah, or SIUE Counseling Services. We all believe in you.