Global Health Speaker Series 2024-2025
Wednesday, April 16, 2025
Across South Asian megacities, rapid urbanization, climatic change, and weak water governance, have created acute water stress, especially among marginalized groups. Drawing on two recent studies from Karachi, Pakistan, this talk examines how structural inequalities and administrative fragmentation produce severe disparities in access to water and sanitation. The talk will highlight how legal recognition, social capital, and community mobilization shape residents’ ability to secure basic services. The talk also foregrounds the lived experiences of residents in underserved neighborhoods, revealing how uneven patterns of water and sanitation access have profound implications for public health, shaping exposure to disease, reinforcing health disparities, and undermining the urban poor’s ability to achieve basic well-being.
