Listed below is my personal contributions to the emplace contributions. I personally worked on the introduction and the findings + themes.
Introduction
We expect our water systems to be safe and reliable but that isn’t the reality for many of the residents in Cahokia Heights. The ongoing water quitting crisis this community has experienced reveals a deeper issue.
Throughout CODES, we approached this issue by using different research methods to better understand the cause of water equity, analyze the effect it had on the residents in the community, and also gather stories and personal experiences so people from outside the community can understand the hardship that residents of Cahokia Heights have to face daily. We decided to pursue this project because water is a natural human need, and everyone should have safe and healthy access to it. The ongoing struggle in Cahokia Heights has revealed infrastructure and equity issues. By focusing on this issue, we aim to spread awareness, give those who feel as though they aren’t heard, inform, and, most importantly, advocate so we can spread awareness.
To make this project possible, we worked & collaborated with different stakeholders and partners. Our team included Heartlands Conservancy, Cahokia Heights Public Library, and Arianna Landry. Together, we collaborated on doing archival research, site visits, interviews, & research to bring our project together.
Finding + Theme
Our research was trying to understand the wicked problem and answer the central question. How are the water crisis and flooding issues impacting residents of Cahokia Heights & what factors contribute to this ongoing issue? While doing research, we confirmed that infrastructure and environmental conditions played a major role in the water crisis. This research supported our wicked problem and research questions. This issue wasn’t just environmental, and because of infrastructure, it was also due to a lack of equity, resources, and systemic neglect.
To analyze our care, we participate in different research methods that help us conclude different things. We used articles, reports, site visits, and interviews to help identify the issues and support our key findings. We gathered all our research and information; we discussed and compared our key findings to see if we had any similarities. This helped us develop the central theme of our project.
The major themes were health risk, lack of trust and communication, failing or poor infrastructure, and flooding. This issue had an impact on residents’ mental and physical well-being; exposure to contaminated water and sewage created serious health risks. Evidence showed that this was a continuous issue causing property damage and disrupting the flow of their daily lives. Residents experiencing flooding after rainstorms due to poor infrastructure and sewage systems caused water to back up into streets & homes. The failure of infrastructure is one of the root causes of this water crisis. Our findings also showed the lack of effort by government officials toward the community. Our interviews revealed an individual perspective of residents of Cahokia Heights and their personal experience dealing with these ongoing issues. Many residents stated that there was neglect or a lack of help from government officials.
Our themes show how the issue in Cahokia Heights is a multitude of issues, ranging from environmental, infrastructure, transparency, and social factors. Our project is designed to address the problem but also spread knowledge and awareness so we & others can advocate.
Listed below are photos from our project over time that we have taken and have been included in the emplace contribution. I specifically selected these photos to support the work in our emplace contribution.