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Increasing water demand and decreasing supply bring increased urgency for drought solutions to California and other Southwestern states. Unpredictable weather patterns, reduction in California’s snowpack and poor infrastructure contribute to an unstable water supply, rendering fresh water availability as one of the most important issues facing the 21st century. Sharona Sokolow (Ph.D. candidate, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health) will be discussing findings from a recently conducted Health Impact Assessment (HIA) of California Senate Bill x7-7 (also known as “20x2020”), which calls for a 20 percent reduction of urban water use per water district, by 2020. This HIA examines water conservation options for water districts to employ for reducing urban water use.
Efforts to reach these conservation targets may have unintended consequences for the health of water users and their communities. Some health effects could be beneficial; some could be harmful; some could impact different populations differently. Assessment of the potential health effects of different water conservation options will provide decision-makers and community stakeholders with information that will help identify options to minimize harm and maximize potential health benefits while achieving water conservation goals and service mandates. Recommendations developed from this HIA are not only applicable in California, and can be adapted to other drought-stricken areas in an effort to maximize water conservation and positive impacts on human health.
Sharona Sokolow is a Ph.D. candidate in the department of Environmental Health Sciences (EHS) at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health. Her research focuses on the human health impacts of California’s water systems to combat drought, specifically urban water conservation and urban recycled water use. She received her Masters in Public Health in Environmental Health from UCLA in 2010, and her Bachelors of Science in Biochemistry from UC Santa Barbara in 2006. Prior to entering graduate school, she worked as a health policy advisor to a United States Congressman, which is where she first realized the importance of effectively communicating science to policy makers; this realization became the foundation for her graduate school career.