Envisioning spatial justice in health geographies and groundwater governance of Kashmir Himalayas using socio-geospatial approach

• Published in: Sustainable water resources management 2024-04, Vol.10 (2), p.73, Article 73
• Main Authors: Mir, Sajad A., Bhat, M. Sultan, Mattoo, Durdanah, Rather, G. M., Wani, M. Saleem
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Biological contamination; Climate change; Contamination; Development Economics; Dichotomies; Drinking behavior; Drinking water; Earth and Environmental Science; Earth Sciences; Environmental justice; Epidemiology; Geomorphology; Governance; Groundwater; Groundwater quality; Hydrogeology; Hydrology/Water Resources; Microbial contamination; Microorganisms; Original Article; Public health; Sustainable Development; Waste disposal; Water governance; Water Policy/Water Governance/Water Management; Water quality
• ISSN: 2363-5037; 2363-5045
• DOI: 10.1007/s40899-024-01044-z

Groundwater is emerging as vital resource in view of the changing climate and diminishing water surface availability. Due to the changing demographic and burgeoning demands for drinking water, the instances of over-abstraction and contamination are all pervasive. The pattern of groundwater quality deterioration and burdens of disease incidence manifest in Kashmir Himalayas as well. The geomorphological and cultural facets have strongly supported the occurrence and access to groundwater distribution and accessibility. The present study uses socio-geospatial approach for the first time in investigating the groundwater quality conditions and human health. This approach in concert with the spatial justice paradigm would definitely augment in water governance and public health discourse in South Asian geographies in general and world in particular. The study employed the physico-chemical and microbiological (30 sampled sites) parameters which largely suggest some selected pockets in the region faced with poor groundwater quality conditions and the significant disease incidence. Groundwater Quality Index, Disease Incidence, Sanitary Investigation Survey, and finally Prioritization modeling were done with embedded intersectionality of socio-cultural factors. The south and south-western region of the region indicates the microbial contamination owing to the improper sanitary conditions and unplanned waste disposal mechanism. This study voices for liberatory praxis for ‘just’ and safe spaces in terms of water governance and environmental rights which forms the kernel of nature-land relations in the discourse of environmental justice and egalitarian socio-spatial relations. This novel and methodologically pluralistic work of socio-ecological and epidemiological spectrum surely would be the trailblazing endeavor in dissecting the asymmetric nature-land dichotomies across the world.