Residents of Sunland Park, New Mexico continue to grapple with dangerously high levels of arsenic in their drinking water, exacerbating health concerns and sparking calls for action. Despite repeated violations and community outcry, lax enforcement, aging infrastructure, and political pressures have allowed the contamination to persist, underscoring broader failures in ensuring safe drinking water for marginalized communities across the United States.
If you would like more context on this matter, please consider Alicia Cooperman. Cooperman is an Assistant Professor of Political Science and International Affairs at George Washington University. Her expertise includes local and global challenges in water politics and policy, political economy of development, civil society and accountability and climate change. Cooperman’s broader research agenda studies the politics of natural disasters, natural resource management, and climate change mitigation and adaptation. Her work has been published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Political Analysis, and Comparative Political Studies, among others.
Cooperman can discuss inequity as it relates to access to clean drinking water along the US-Mexico border and the implications of grassroots organizers carrying the responsibility of holding utilities and elected officials accountable.
If you would like to connect with Prof. Cooperman, please contact GW Media Relations Specialists Tayah Frye at [email protected].
-GW-