Water sharing is a distressing form of reciprocity: Shame, upset, anger, and conflict over water in twenty cross‐cultural sites

Abstract

Anthropological theories of reciprocity suggest it enhances prestige, social solidarity, and material security. Yet, some ethnographic cases suggest that water sharing—a form of reciprocity newly gaining scholarly attention—might work in the opposite way, increasing conflict and emotional distress. Using cross‐cultural survey data from twenty global sites (n = 4,267), we test how household water reciprocity (giving and receiving) is associated with negative emotional and social outcomes. Participation in water sharing as both givers and receivers is consistently associated with greater odds of reporting shame, upset, and conflict over water. Water sharing experiences in a large, diverse sample confirm a lack of alignment with predictions of classic reciprocity theories. Recent ethnographic research on reciprocity in contexts of deepening contemporary poverty will allow development of ethnographically informed theories to better explain negative experiences tied to water reciprocity.

Frontiers of household water insecurity metrics: severity, adaptation and resilience

“…The notion of perceived effectiveness is important because it could reveal forms of maladaptation. Water-related behaviour changes could induce negative externalities regarding another physical resource, such as sacrificing food or energy, 36 or social relations, such as anxiety from borrowing water 12 or implementing a socially expected behaviour that the individual does not view as beneficial, such as growing and consuming less water-intensive—but less nutritious—foods. 37 …”

“…The HWISE scale was intended as a rapid screener of household- and community-level water insecurity and as a potential monitoring and evaluation tool, and it was eventually adapted into a 4-item short form version. 10 In multisite studies, variations of the 12-item HWISE scale have been associated, as hypothesised, with measures of food insecurity, 11 mental health, 12 water expenditures, 13 interpersonal conflict 14 and water borrowing. 15 …”

Measuring transformative WASH: A new paradigm for evaluating water, sanitation, and hygiene interventions

“…Research on WASH insecurity's effects on mental health and well‐being has flourished over the past 5 years, even if scholars are still scratching the surface of these pathways (Kangmennaang & Elliott, 2021). It is clear that water worry, and related forms of stress, anxiety, and depression, are incredibly disruptive to households and individuals, whether directly through inadequate WASH (Wutich, Brewis, & Tsai, 2020), or indirectly through adaptations to inadequate WASH such as the distress often generated by water sharing arrangements (Wutich et al, 2022). Mental ill health can also be shaped by the loss of dignity and autonomy over one's water situation, effects that demonstrate the far‐reaching implications of the human right to water (Robina‐Ramírez et al, 2020; Shreyaskar, 2016).…”

Moral economies for water: A framework for analyzing norms of justice, economic behavior, and social enforcement in the contexts of water inequality

“…Recent scholarship documents the widespread existence of interhousehold water sharing—the direct transfer of privately held water (e.g., water gifts, loans, and barter) between individuals or households—within water‐insecure communities (Wutich et al, 2018). Water sharing has been theorized as a ubiquitous adaptive response to conditions of water scarcity Brewis et al, 2019; Rosinger et al, 2020; Wutich et al, 2018, 2022). But we do not yet know when water sharing functions as a system of social insurance that reliably protects people in water insecure conditions versus occurs sporadically as one‐off and last‐ditch attempts to beg water off others.…”

“…Although many other studies find that people affirm an obligation to give water—usually implicitly—because water is essential to life (Buckaki et al, 2021a, 2021b; Drew, 2019; Estes, 2017; Harris et al, 2020; McIvor, 2020; Wutich, 2011; Wutich et al, 2018), water sharing research thus far has not explicitly investigated the mechanisms of social pressure (or lack thereof) that people may use to enforce morally understood obligations to share water. Though, many studies indicate that people do attempt to pressure others into sharing water (Drew et al, 2021; Schnegg, 2015; Schnegg & Linke, 2015; Schnegg et al, 2016; Wutich et al, 2022). Other studies specifically note that people may appeal to morality and charity as an attempt to pressure others to share (El Didi & Corbera, 2017; Jewell & Wutich, 2011; Wutich, 2011).…”