AccScience Publishing / AJWEP / Volume 11 / Issue 1 / DOI: 10.3233/AJW-2014-11_1_07
RESEARCH ARTICLE

River Health and Community Health: A Collaborative  Action-oriented Social-ecological Analysis

Eva Julia Suhren1* Fitria Devita2 Katrin Prüter3 Suardi Tarumun2 Marion Glaser4 Bernhard Glaeser5
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1 Puschkinallee 9, 12435 Berlin
2 Agribusiness Department, University of Riau, Pekanbaru, Indonesia
3 Am Pascheberg 1, 29664 Walsrode
4 Leibniz Center for Tropical Marine Ecology (ZMT), Fahrenheitstr. 6, 28359 Bremen, Germany
5 German Society for Human Ecology (DGH), Clayallee 271, 14169 Berlin, Germany
AJWEP 2014, 11(1), 51–66; https://doi.org/10.3233/AJW-2014-11_1_07
Submitted: 13 September 2013 | Accepted: 11 October 2013 | Published: 1 January 2014
© 2014 by the Author(s). This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution -Noncommercial 4.0 International License (CC-by the license) ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ )
Abstract

We assume that social and ecological systems are closely connected. Within the conceptual framework of Social-Ecological Systems (SES) analysis we focus on poverty, health and sustainable development within the Siak River catchment area in Riau Province (Sumatra). Substantial environmental changes in the last ten years, especially the degraded water quality of the Siak River, have directly affected the Siak ecosystem services and consequently the welfare and the livelihood of people who depend on these services. Impacts occur on income, health, job mobility and, to some degree, community culture for those who live in the Siak River basin. The income of fisher families has been reduced significantly forcing them to look for job alternatives elsewhere. The contaminated water has caused diseases that were not reported ten years ago.

Local village inhabitants, women specifically, are aware of the social-ecological nexus, i.e. the connection between river pollution and people’s health in the riverside village communities. The economic disadvantages people experience from the degraded ecosystem services differ between villages but have severely lowered the standard of living and quality of life in riverside settlements.

Conclusions are drawn on the role of poverty, and the chances of alleviating health risks and pursuing sustainable development for the Siak river basin are explored.

Keywords
Riverside communities
water pollution
health risks
women’s role
poverty and social injustice
Conflict of interest
The authors declare they have no competing interests.
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