Ellis Adams

University of Notre Dame | ND · Keough School of Global Affairs

An increasing number of studies find that water sharing—the non-market transfer of privately held water between households—is a ubiquitous informal practice around the world and a primary way that households respond to water insecurity. Yet, a key question about household water sharing remains: is water sharing a viable path that can help advance h...

Access to safe water is vital for community health, especially during disaster and recovery periods when standard solutions may be slow or politically stalled. Water sharing, an informal and self-guided coping mechanism, becomes critical during disasters when standard water infrastructure is damaged or destroyed. Drawing on diverse literature, we h...

Coupled human‐water systems (CHWS) are diverse and have been studied across a wide variety of disciplines. Integrating multiple disciplinary perspectives on CHWS provides a comprehensive and actionable understanding of these complex systems. While interdisciplinary integration has often remained elusive, specific combinations of disciplines might b...

Resource scarcity and insecurity due to climate change, coupled with ethnic, religious, and identity politics, have strained peaceful coexistence between farmers and herders in West and Central Africa over the last few decades. Violent farmer-herder clashes now pose a significant threat to security and stability in the Sahelian and savannah dryland...

Coupled human-water systems (CHWS) are diverse and have been studied across a wide variety of disciplines. Integrating multiple disciplinary perspectives on CHWS provides a comprehensive and actionable understanding of these complex systems. While interdisciplinary integration has often remained elusive, specific combinations of disciplines might b...

Informed by decades of literature, water interventions increasingly deploy “gender‐sensitive” or even “gender transformative” approaches that seek to redress the disproportionate harms women face from water insecurity. These efforts recognize the role of gendered social norms and unequal power relations but often focus narrowly on the differences a...

Progress toward achieving Sustainable Development Goal 6, clean water and sanitation for all, is behind schedule and faces substantial financial challenges. Rigorous water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) interventions have underperformed, casting doubt on their efficacy and potentially undermining confidence in WASH funding and investments. But the...

Urban poverty research on African cities has focused mainly on megacities and large metropolitan areas. Despite their critical role in Africa's urbanization and development, secondary cities have received limited scholarly attention. Studies on secondary cities are unidimensional and rely mostly on secondary information from national census data. U...

Compounding systems of marginalization differentiate and shape water-related risks. Yet, quantitative water security scholarship rarely assesses such risks through intersectionality, a paradigm that conceptualizes and examines racial, gendered, class, and other oppressions as interdependent. Using an intersectionality approach, we analyze the relat...

In sub-Saharan Africa, water insecurity is intertwined with gender and sociocultural norms. While extensive scholarship exists on gender-water relations in the region, it predominantly focuses on women’s roles and responsibilities, seldom considering the role of masculinities. This paper examines masculinities, gender relations, and women’s embodie...

Housing insecurity is a pervasive challenge in the cities and urban areas of low-and middle-income countries, particularly in the informal settlements where a disproportionately high number of urban residents live. Despite this persistent challenge and its impact on health and well-being, there are scarce comprehensive, standardized, and validated...

Globally, rapid population growth in cities, regulatory and governance failures, poor infrastructure, inadequate funding for urban water systems, and the impacts of climate change are each rapidly reconfiguring regional hydrosocial relations. In the United States, these hydrosocial reconfigurations tend to reinforce racial inequalities tied to infr...

Human activities can have substantial impacts on watersheds, yet a major but understudied impact on many urban watersheds is the inflow and infiltration (I&I) of water into sewage infrastructure. I&I is important, because it is a major cause of sewer overflows, increases wastewater treatment plant costs, and reduces base flows of urban streams. Unf...

Water insecurity is a critical public-health challenge in Africa's urban informal settlements, where most of the population often lacks access to household taps. In these settings, water fetching is disproportionately performed by women. While water fetching is physically laborious and exposes women to multiple risks, the water-insecurity literatur...

Community-led total sanitation (CLTS) is increasingly promoted globally as an innovative approach to addressing the sanitation challenge in developing countries, especially in the rural areas where access to sanitation remains poor. However, a significant challenge in CLTS is poor management of faecal sludge when pits are full. In this regard, comp...

Water security requires not only sufficient availability of and access to safe and acceptable quality for domestic uses, but also fair distribution within and across populations. However, a key research gap remains in understanding water security inequality and its dynamics, which in turn creates an impediment to tracking progress towards sustainab...

Several factors influence indoor air quality, including fuel burning, building materials and furnishings, household cleaning and maintenance products, central heating and cooling systems and microbial containments. While these factors are vital, they do not capture important components of housing insecurity or energy poverty. Without appropriate me...

Objectives Household food insecurity has been associated with deleterious consequences on the physical health of vulnerable populations. However, few studies have examined its effect on the individual facets of well-being in slums and informal settlements. Therefore, this study examined (1) the effect of food insecurity on the intellectual, spiritu...

Objectives Globally, an estimated 1.6 billion people live in inadequate housing, with 1 billion living in slums and informal settlements. However, there has not been a way of measuring inadequate housing or housing insecurity in the global South, neither is there an understanding of the relationship between housing insecurity and food insecurity in...

Background Housing insecurity is a pervasive challenge in the cities and urban areas of low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs), particularly in the informal settlements where disproportionately high number of urban residents live. Despite this persistent challenge and its impact on health and well-being, there are currently no comprehensive...

Defects in sanitary‐sewer infrastructure enable exchange of large volumes of fluids to and from the environment. The intrusion of rainfall and groundwater into sanitary sewers is called inflow and infiltration (I&I). Though long recognized in the assessment of sewers, the impacts of I&I on streamflow within urban watersheds are unknown. We quantifi...

Household survey data from 27 sites in 22 countries were collected in 2017–2018 in order to construct and validate a cross-cultural household-level water insecurity scale. The resultant Household Water Insecurity Experiences (HWISE) scale presents a useful tool for monitoring and evaluating water interventions as a complement to traditional metrics...

While considerable research has established the impacts of urbanization on streamflow, there has been little emphasis on how intra-annual variations in streamflow can deepen the understanding of hydrological processes in urban watersheds. This study fills this critical research gap by examining, at the monthly scale, correlations between land-cover...

Water is an essential nutrient that has primarily been considered in terms of its physiological necessity. But reliable access to water in sufficient quantities and quality is also critical for many nutrition-related behaviors and activities, including growing and cooking diverse foods. Given growing challenges to water availability and safety, inc...

The novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic is having a significant global impact on livelihoods, health, and general well-being. This policy brief argues that in low-income countries (LICs) where water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) insecurity is widespread and closely entangled with poverty and other vulnerabilities, COVID-19 will have a p...

In March 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) issued a set of public guidelines for Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) prevention measures that highlighted handwashing, physical distancing, and household cleaning. These health behaviors are severely compromised in parts of the world that lack secure water supplies, particularly in low- and mi...

Global drinking water monitoring programmes and studies on water quality in urban slums often overlook short-term temporal changes in water quality and health risks. The aim of this study was to quantify daily changes in household water access and quality in an urban slum in Malawi using a mixed-method approach. Household drinking water samples (n...

Although there is a large and growing literature on anticipated climate change impacts on health, we know very little about the linkages between differentiated vulnerabilities to climate extremes and adverse physical and mental health outcomes. In this paper, we examine how recurrent flooding interacts with gendered vulnerability, social differenti...

Safe and secure water is a cornerstone of modern life in the global North. This article critically examines a set of prevalent myths about household water in high‐income countries, with a focus on Canada and the United States. Taking a relational approach, we argue that household water insecurity is a product of institutionalized structures and pow...

The COVID-19 pandemic raises questions about the effectiveness of urban planning practice in Africa and offers an opportunity to reflect on more constructive protocols for planning that can promote the public health agenda in the continent. This commentary analyzes three critical areas of urban planning concern that limit the capacity of cities in...

COVID-19 has brought global attention to the critical role of water in managing infectious outbreaks. Although Sub-Saharan Africa could become a COVID-19 hotspot, some are optimistic that given the right strategies and interventions the region can contain the pandemic. One such interventions is Ghana’s directive to provide free water to domestic us...

Background The use of mHealth by primary health care providers is a unique opportunity to improve maternal and child health in Sub-Saharan Africa. However, few studies have examined the effects of primary health care providers’ knowledge and attitudes of mHealth for maternal and child health promotion in low-resource settings. Therefore, this study...

As public and private water policies fail to address urban water insecurity in the Global South, community‐based water governance (CWG) has emerged as an alternative. However, systematic understanding of the current state, performance, and future opportunities of urban CWG remains lacking. We critically review literature (75 case studies from 1990...

In this commentary we draw attention to water sharing as political, highlighting the stakes and concerns around such practices. We engage a broad definition of politics, capturing everyday acts and practices that might be interpreted along a gradient ranging from mundane and banal forms of resistance, to refusal, to more obvious and visible acts of...

This study examines local news reporting about the Flint water crisis. The analysis is based on in-depth interviews with local reporters to explore journalistic practices and perceptions of the crisis. The study utilised a framework grounded in concepts from community journalism and crisis reporting, as well as environmental justice and racism scho...

Billions of people globally, living with various degrees of water insecurity, obtain their household and drinking water from diverse sources that can absorb a disproportionate amount of a household's income. In theory, there are income and expenditure thresholds associated with effective mitigation of household water insecurity, but there is little...

Objectives: Over half of the world's population (4 billion people) experience severe water scarcity at least one month per year, while half a billion people experience severe water scarcity throughout the year. Despite progress from national and global interventions, a staggering proportion of the Global South remains water insecure. Rapid urban g...

This study examines the adoption of latrines provided as part of reconstruction efforts after the 2004 tsunami in India. Primary data from 274 households encompassing 1154 individuals were collected from 14 villages. GLM and GLMM tests indicate that sex (more females adopted than males) is a statistically significant factor in latrine adoption (p =...

In Sub-Saharan Africa, only 35% of the urban population has piped water on premises despite the economic (time savings) and public health benefits that household taps offer. In the urban informal settlements, even fewer people own household taps. However, while there is extensive literature on everyday urban water insecurity in the region, far less...

Numerous studies have measured the benefits of community participation in promoting equity and efficiency in the water service-provisioning sector. However, few have focused on factors which affect functionality in community operated water schemes in urban centers. The purpose of this study is to fill this gap in knowledge. Using qualitative data g...

Objectives: Food and water insecurity have both been demonstrated as acute and chronic stressors and undermine human health and development. A basic untested proposition is that they chronically coexist, and that household water insecurity is a fundamental driver of household food insecurity. Methods: We provide a preliminary assessment of their...

The reflexive turn in sociology and across much of the social sciences has brought a central focus on the “self” within research encounters. Within this context, qualitative researchers are required to highlight how their positionality shapes their research experience. In this article, we interrogate how our own personal experiences as native Ghana...

In urban slums – home to approximately 1 billion people worldwide - access to clean drinking water iswoefully inadequate despite the United Nations' declaration that access to safe water is a fundamental human right. Households in slums are frequently forced to rely on multiple drinking water sources to meet their needs. Numerous factors influence...

While providing drinking water on premises to all citizens in urban areas may be desirable, economic and institutional challenges coupled with poverty, insecure tenure, and other barriers prevent many water utilities from providing private taps to all households. To meet growing water demand and fill gaps in service delivery, alternative forms of p...

The call for deliberate transformational adaptation (TA) has increased over the last decade. However, a challenge many planners face is the lack of clarity on the norms and principles for designing and implementing such adaptation and the ethical value systems for assessing their significance. This paper contributes to the debate on planning princi...

Water sharing between households could crucially mitigate short‐term household water shortages, yet it is a vastly understudied phenomenon. Here we use comparative survey data from eight sites in seven sub‐Saharan African countries (Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria, and Uganda) to answer three questions: Wit...

Water sharing offers insight into the everyday and, at times, invisible ties that bind people and households with water and to one another. Water sharing can take many forms, including so‐called “pure gifts,” balanced exchanges, and negative reciprocity. In this study, we examine water sharing between households as a culturally embedded practice th...

The failure of the conventional public and private (market-based) water policies to improve urban water access in the global South has prompted growing interest in alternative models such as community–state co-production. However, there is little evidence of whether co-production can improve water service delivery in the informal settlements of sub...

Although decades of research show long-duration pigeon peas (PPs) as a best-bet technology that enhances nutrition, soil fertility, crop diversification, food security, climate-change resilience, agroecological sustainability, and incomes of resource-poor smallholder farmers in Saharan Africa (SSA), PP adoption remains low. This exploratory qualita...

Urban‐rural inequalities in water access constitute one of the major obstacles to achieving universal water coverage. In Sub‐Saharan Africa, these inequalities have persisted for decades. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) seek to achieve universal access to safely managed water, which requires that an improved source be located on premises,...

Traditionally, urbanization is hailed as an important force for socioeconomic development of countries. In fact, recent research on Africa suggests that urbanization has the potential to stimulate socioeconomic development. Yet, many African countries experiencing rapid urban growth continue to bear a disproportionate amount of the costs associated...

The relative significance of indicators and determinants of health is important for local public health workers and planners. Of similar importance is a method for combining and evaluating such markers. We used a recently developed index, the Urban Health Index (UHI), to examine the impact of environmental variables on the overall health of cities....

Much of the literature on gender dimensions of community-based water governance focuses on irrigation systems in rural areas. Largely overlooked is how gender dynamics influence participation in community-based urban water governance systems. To address this gap, we use insights from Feminist Political Ecology (FPE) to examine whether and how commu...

The role of indoor air pollutants and their association with anemia are not fully understood. Therefore, we examined if cleaner cooking fuel (electricity/biogas/natural gas) was associated with less risk of anemia than fuel mix (i.e., charcoal, kerosene) or biomass (i.e. wood, straw, shrubs, crop residue) among women in Ghana. Data were drawn from...

This paper examines Atlanta’s position in the hydrosocial landscape of the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint (ACF) River Basin, with a concern for uneven inclusion of low-income and minorities in water governance processes. We situate current scalar and stakeholder diversity in water governance within neoliberal failures in urban water governance in...

Poor access to potable water remains one of the most troubling challenges in Sub-Saharan Africa's informal settlements (or slums) where majority of the poor and vulnerable urban population lives. While prior research shows significant disparities in water access between urban and rural areas, little is known about intra-urban inequalities and wheth...

This article synthesizes the literature on historical and emerging institutional arrangements for urban water supply in Sub-Saharan Africa to highlight successes, drawbacks, and opportunities for improving future water access. It traces the influence of decades-long global water initiatives on urban water-policy reforms in the region and reviews ev...

Background The causes and health risks associated with obesity in young people have been extensively documented, but elderly obesity is less well understood, especially in sub-Saharan Africa. This study examines the relationship between obesity and the risk of chronic diseases, cognitive impairment, and functional disability among the elderly in Gh...

Public concern for the natural environment continues to grow as complex environmental problems emerge. One avenue where concern for the environment has been expressed is through activism. However, research on environmental activism, often aimed at understanding the motivations behind activist behavior, has largely focused on older adults. In this s...

In Ghana, chieftaincy institutions act as custodians for about 80% of the total land area, and are responsible for leasing or allocating land while official planning institutions determine and manage its use. Yet, the extent to which chieftaincy institutions impede or contribute to sustainable urban land use planning in Ghana has received limited r...

For the next decade, the global water crisis remains the risk of highest concern, and ranks ahead of climate change, extreme weather events, food crises and social instability. Across the globe, nearly one in ten people is without access to an improved drinking water source. Least Developed Countries (LDCs) especially in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) ar...

Over 70% of Malawi’s urban population lives in informal settlements, where households regularly face chronic water insecurity. This article utilizes mixed methods – household surveys (N = 645), field observations, focus groups and interviews – to examine household water insecurity in three urban informal settlements of Lilongwe, Malawi’s capital an...

We examine the performance of water user associations (WUAs) and the role of actors, power relations, socio-institutional dynamics, and context in supplying water to poor urban and peri-urban neighborhoods of Malawi's two major cities. Using a preliminary survey, key-informant interviews, focus groups, secondary data, and insights from the communit...

Lack of access to potable water and good sanitation is still one of the most challenging public health concerns of the twenty-first century despite steady progress over recent decades. Almost a billion people globally lack access to safe water; over two billion live without adequate sanitation facilities. The challenge is even more daunting for Sub...

Solid waste production from excessive consumption remains one of the most pressing global environmental challenges currently. Particularly for burgeoning cities of developing countries, rapid population growth tend to exacerbate the problem, with profound public health and environmental consequences. In Ghana, over 4.5 million tons of municipal sol...

Almost a billion people globally lack access to potable water. In the early 1990's, attempts to improve potable water access in the global south included a massive push for water services privatization, often involving the transfer of public water services to private companies. Critics of water privatization claim it rarely improves access to water...

Improved water source is essential for the health of both urban and rural dwellers. However, Over 1 billion people globally are without access to clean water and adequate sanitation facilities. The purpose of this study was to assess the factors that influence water quality in the Tamale metropolis, Ghana. The study was conducted with 250 responden...

This document was created to support the Middle Grand River Watershed Management planning process. This report assesses some of the potential impacts of increased precipitation caused by climate change on the Mid-Michigan watershed. The report presents estimates from several models for future changes in temperature and precipitation in the Great La...

More than 1 billion people lack access to clean water and proper sanitation. As part of efforts to solve this problem, there is a growing shift from public to private water management led by The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). This shift has inspired much related research. Researchers have assessed water privatization related...