Arizona Water for All

What We Do

The Arizona Water for All program works with Arizona’s most water-insecure households and communities to improve water security and engagement in water decision-making using community-based participatory approaches. To achieve water security, Arizona Water for All is working to promote empowerment and participation in community water decision-making, deploy proven water security solutions such as fit-to-purpose technologies and advance measurement and monitoring of household water insecurity.

Arizona Water for All unites community engagement with household water monitoring and building necessary water infrastructure in communities across the state. This program is providing opportunities for ASU social scientists to leverage location by doing use-inspired research and building community partnerships to transform society. This program is advancing ASU’s social embeddedness and measurably advancing water security in Arizona’s most water-insecure households and communities, while also enhancing Arizona’s reputation for strong and successful stewardship under climate change.

Innovation and Impact

The Arizona Water for All team originally formed with the goal of finding innovative ways to advance water security in communities along the US-Mexico border. Working across engineering, data science, anthropology, economics and law and policy, the Arizona Water for All initiative is converging to form a new field of study and designing innovative approaches to water security. Not only are our academic disciplines converging, but we have created new methods to intersect with communities as co-researchers and partners.

Our work asks the innovative question: how can we, as scientists, build trust and converge with water-insecure communities around solutions?

Team

Featured Projects

Promoting empowerment and participation in community water decision-making

Arizona Water for All is measurably increasing participation in water decision-making among Arizona’s most water-insecure communities. By establishing the Arizona Water for All Network, we are bringing together organizations, advocates and community members to promote water security and empowerment across Arizona. Our community engagement efforts are increasing dialogue and inclusion of views from under-represented communities to move forward water policy and action.

*Point-of-Use Water Filtration System Designed and Installed by AW4A Engineers in Florence, Arizona*

Deploying proven water security solutions

Our dedicated team of engineers is working to improve water quality in communities across the state by designing and implementing water technology solutions. We are deploying modular, adaptive, and decentralized (MAD) water solutions—bringing together engineered and social infrastructure—to improve community resilience in a fast-changing desert climate with hard to predict water access needs. We are working with communities to develop self-contained, transportable and low-maintenance water mechanisms, which are deeply embedded in community-level social infrastructure, to improve water sustainability.

*The AW4A team conducts interviews in rural Arizona communities to understand the scope of water insecurity.*

Advancing measurement and monitoring of household water insecurity

Working in partnership with NSF Household Water Insecurity Network, Arizona Water for All is partnering with scholars, students and communities to undertake studies in water-insecure households in the state. Leveraging interviews with water-insecure Arizonans, we are developing novel and rigorous methods to better understand individual and household experiences of water insecurity. Our initial work is focusing on creating the first validated scale for measuring household water insecurity in the Global North.