Spring Semester 2020

Douglas Fernandes Gomes Da Silva

Eco-health linkages: the roles of drought and desertification on land degradation and human health among indigenous Wayúu populations of La Guajira, Colombia.

Drought causing desertification in La Guajira, Colombia. (© Douglas Fernandes Gomes Da Silva )

The project focuses on the Wayúu indigenous people of La Guajira, Colombia, a place where biodiversity and water resources are degrading due to drought and desertification, and the population’s socio-economic and health disparities are extreme. As the Wayúu are a farming community, malnutrition is widespread due to food insecurities caused by the scarcity of water and arable land. The lack of infrastructure to address droughts, and a shortage of basic sanitation and healthcare facilities to attend to these communities further exacerbate these insecurities. We hypothesize that a combination of these factors is driving the current high rates of childhood mortality among the Wayúu. This project plans to clarify these issues in a holistic way: First, an environmental history and socio-anthropological study of La Guajira will contribute to better understanding the environmental, social, cultural and economic contexts of the Wayúu livelihood. Second, the establishment of a series of agricultural patches in areas affected by different levels of desertification to investigate if land rehabilitation is possible. Third, identify the main health problems related to desertification and evaluate the current healthcare capacity of the region. Lastly, work together with the local government of La Guajira and indigenous affairs groups to evaluate their current policies to address food, water and healthcare insecurities, and identify challenges for policy implementations. In summary, our goal is to clarify the roles of drought and desertification on childhood mortality and help determine what types of policies and interventions may have the most positive effects on the environment and to the livelihood and health of the Wayúu people.

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