A full house saw a fascinating talk by Professor Georgina Drew at Electra House on - Managing toxins and making water “safe”: Understanding consumer behaviour and water quality fears in urban South Asia.
In this short talk, Associate Professor Georgina Drew discussed the rise of “chemo-uncertainty” in urban India and Nepal alongside the growth of expensive middle-income household water management and filtration practices. The main emphasis will be on how anthropologically acquired insights can illuminate consumer perceptions, behaviours, and fears about potable water, which are influenced by cultural norms and widespread concerns about persistent exposure to food- and water-borne toxins. Household water management is highly emotional, as the talk will underscore, and those emotions drive millions to billions in water technology purchasing decisions.
Associate Professor of Anthropology and Development Studies at the University of Adelaide. She is the author of River Dialogues: Hindu Faith and the Political Ecology of Dams on the Sacred Ganga (University of Arizona Press, 2017) along with over 45 peer reviewed journal articles and book chapters. She serves as the Co-Director of the Food and Water Futures Program of the Stretton Institute of Public Policy and is also the Co-Chair of the Research Portfolio in the School of Social Sciences.