When coping strategies become the norm: household water insecurity in the Dominican Republic

There is a growing consensus that global monitoring of water access greatly underestimates household water insecurity worldwide. Measures that overlook the intricacies of accessing water lead to an overinflated sense of progress towards universal water access. This article illustrates the complexity of household water access by revealing the causes and impacts of household water insecurity in the Dominican Republic. A mixed-methods case study approach is adopted, which combines a household survey with interviews and immersive research. Households are shown to adopt numerous strategies to cope with the fractured system of water delivery, including using multiple sources of water, storing water, sharing and borrowing water, and engaging in exchanges of social capital. Although individual activities are integral to the ongoing functioning of water infrastructure, the impact and cost of systemic reliance on these creates an unacceptably high user burden. Moreover, these strategies exacerbate household water insecurity, the very phenomenon they are employed to mitigate.