Linking water scarcity to mental health : hydro-social interruptions in the Lake Urmia Basin, Iran
Ženko, Maja (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals)
Menga, Filippo (University of Reading. Department of Geography and Environmental Science)

Date:	2019
Abstract:	Alterations of water flows resulting from the manifestation of powerful hydro-social imaginaries often produce an uneven distribution of burdens and benefits for different social groups or regions, reflecting their social and political power. Marginalized regions can suffer manufactured territorialized water scarcity, which disturbs the natural, economic and socio-political order of water users, and as this article shows, inevitably affects their psychological wellbeing. Set in the context of the surroundings of Lake Urmia in Iran, once one of the largest hypersaline lakes in the world and now a severely degraded ecosystem mainly as a result of water overuse in its watershed, this article explores how and through which pathways this manufactured water scarcity impacted the mental health of the water users in the region. The research findings reveal that alterations in this local hydro-social territory and the resulting biophysical, financial and social changes, as well as impacts on physical health of water users, relate to chronic psychological stress, social isolation, intra-community conflicts, despair, hopelessness, depression and anxiety.
Note:	This research was conducted with the support of the Secretariat of Universities and Research, Ministry of Economy and Knowledge, Government of Catalonia (AGAUR-FI grant).
Note:	Unidad de excelencia María de Maeztu MdM-2015-0552
Rights:	Aquest document està subjecte a una llicència d'ús Creative Commons. Es permet la reproducció total o parcial, la distribució, la comunicació pública de l'obra i la creació d'obres derivades, fins i tot amb finalitats comercials, sempre i quan es reconegui l'autoria de l'obra original.
Language:	Anglès
Document:	Article ; recerca ; Versió publicada
Subject:	Hydro-social territories ; Mental health ; Lake Urmia ; Manufactured water scarcity ; Iran
Published in:	Water, Vol. 11, issue 5 (2019) , art. 1092, ISSN 2073-4441

DOI: 10.3390/w11051092

20 p, 1.1 MB

The record appears in these collections:
Research literature > UAB research groups literature > Research Centres and Groups (research output) > Experimental sciences > Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals (ICTA)
Articles > Research articles
Articles > Published articles