Browsing by Subject "Colonias"

Now showing 1 - 6 of 6

Factors affecting wastewater service provision in Texas colonias
(2016-08) Patel, Prachi; Zhang, Ming, 1963 April 22-; Lieberknecht, Katherine
This report asks two questions, what factors affect wastewater service provision in Texas colonias and in what order do they affect service provision. Literature review suggests that physical constraints, financing capacities, demographics, political will, administrative procedures and level public health threat affect service provision in colonias. A logit analysis is employed to variables of financing capacities, level of public health threat and physical constraints to analyze the order of influence. Limitations of data and qualitative nature of some of the factors do not allow a complete analysis with all factors. From the current available data, financing capacity most affects service provision in Texas colonias.
Infectious disease and the South Texas colonias
(2016-12) Knab, Brian Russell; Sarkar, Sahotra
In this study, I investigated infectious disease in Texas, with a focus on the impacts of poverty and lack of infrastructure in the South Texas colonias on rates of infectious disease. I used Bayesian statistical methods, and in particular, hierarchical conditional autoregressive Poisson regression to model county-level rates of hospitalization across the state. According to that model, and with at least 97.5% probability, the average risk of hospitalization is greater in counties containing colonias as compared to counties which do not for the following infectious disease categories tracked by the Texas Department of State Health Services: Amebiasis, Brucellosis, Candidiasis, Chickenpox, Coccidoidomycosis, Ill defined intestinal infections, Intestinal infections due to other organisms, Bacterial food poisoning, Rickettsioses, Salmonella infections, Typhus, Viral Exanthemata, Pulmonary tuberculosis, Septicemia, Shigellosis, Diseases due to Coxsackie virus, Typhoid and paratyphoid fevers, and Whooping cough
Policy-driven water sector and energy dependencies in Texas border colonias
(2018-05-04) Guerra Uribe, Monica Estefania; Faust, Kasey M.
Colonias— a subset of peri-urban subdivisions located in the United States — often lack ease of access to critical infrastructure services, such as water, wastewater, or energy, consequentially cascading into public health challenges and reduced community well-being. This challenge has been tackled globally through differing policy approaches (dependent on location) in attempt to improve the access to such services and the built environment standards existing in these communities. One category of such policy efforts deemed relatively successful is “In-Place Upgrading”, requiring local participation of the community residents. In Texas colonias, a statewide law was enacted in 1995 to encourage in-place upgrading. This law, leveraging the prioritization of energy infrastructure in households above other infrastructure services, introduced a logical dependency into communities that required residents—prior to connecting to electricity or gas—to have their platted land registered with the city/county and then connected to adequate water and wastewater services. This study seeks to assess the relationship between built environment parameters associated with water and wastewater access, and thereby impacting energy access, approximately two decades after the law has been introduced, as well as the perceived burden and efficacy of this particular law on boarder colonia residents. Enabled by publically available data from the Attorney General of Texas Office and semi-structured interviews from state decision makers and promotoras (local community volunteers), hypothesis testing and qualitative methods are used to answer and understand the aforementioned objectives. Three counties—Hidalgo, El Paso, and Cameron—representing 1,297 colonias were used in this analysis. The results revealed that among 110 combinations of parameters exploring colonias access to services and built environment, only one associated pair—colonia incorporation into a city and the presence of a community water system—was present in all three counties. However, many other associated parameters were significance in only one county, indicating the heterogeneity present at the community level when evaluating parameters possibly influencing access to built environment services. Findings from this study suggest decision makers—in addition to those policies and laws in place— focus on localized county/city-level efforts tailored to the community to increase access and improve the built environment.
The rise of renters and renting in Texas colonias
(2013-05) Durst, Noah Joseph; Ward, Peter M., 1951-; Wilson, Robert Hines
This report documents the growth of renting in Texas colonias, low-income informal settlements along the US-Mexico border. Historically, owner-occupied self-help and self-managed housing has been the norm in these settlements, so scholarly treatment of renting in colonias has been very limited. I begin with a literature review of housing development and housing policy in colonias, before turning, for comparison, to a discussion of renting in the US as well as in informal settlements in the developing world. Chapter 2 draws upon data from the US Census Bureau to describe the nature and extent of the colonia rental market in the six Texas counties with the largest colonia populations: my analysis reveals that renters now make up more than one in five colonia households. I expand on this discussion by examining differences between renter and owner households, paying particular attention to factors that make renters more vulnerable than owners. Chapter 3 employs a variety of regression models to identify the determinants of varying rental rates in colonias. The results suggest that larger, older, and more densely populated colonias have higher rates of renting. In Chapter 4, I utilize a mixed methods approach -- including household surveys, key informant interviews, and intensive case study interviews -- to a) better understand the tenure decisions of colonia renters and to place such decisions within a context of extreme socio-economic vulnerability and b) examine the factors that incentivize a turn toward renting among property owners. I conclude with a discussion of potential policy solutions to ensure that colonia rental accommodation remains affordable, accessible, and of sufficient quality.
Socially embedded and sustained point-of-use disinfection : enhancing silver nanoparticle enabled ceramic water filters with a Navajo pottery technique
(2020-05-11) Rowles III, Lewis Stetson; Saleh, Navid B.; Lawler, Desmond F.; Kirisits, Mary Jo; Katz, Lynn E.; Kovar, Desiderio
For the nearly 800 million people that lack access to safe drinking water, point-of-use water treatment systems are a common solution to help provide potable water. Despite the availability of numerous treatment devices, failure at the implementation stage is common, mostly due to an oversight of the target community’s needs and thereby creating barriers for adoption. A classic example of communities with barriers against outside influence is the Navajo Nation, which also has extensive water contamination. Developing a water treatment solution for the Navajos thus has to consider community sentiment and empower the solution with local materials or century-old practices, which can possibly overcome such barriers and facilitate long-term adoption. This two-pronged dissertation centers around socially-aware water treatment. The first part is community-engaged research, aimed at identifying social drivers that underlie a community’s relationship with water and assessing the need for water treatment technologies. A qualitative study on water in indigenous communities in Mexico helped to identify the diverse drivers relating to water use. This aspect was further developed utilizing structural equation modeling to quantitatively link factors relating to water in the colonias in the United States. A systematic study on water quality in these unincorporated communities was also completed. The development of a socially-aware technology is the connecting link between the community-engaged research and the scientific laboratory research, which focuses the design of a socially appropriate nano-enabled ceramic device for disinfection. A natural polymer, Navajo pottery glaze of pinyon resin, was utilized to apply silver nanoparticles to ceramic water filters. The use of this material may help to facilitate adoption while rendering needed technological advancement to these widely used water treatment devices. Results show that embedding silver nanoparticles onto ceramic with this polymer allows for sustained dissolution of ionic silver in a range of waters and serves as a barrier to passivation from sulfide and chloride. The polymer was also found to control biofouling and to be toxic against Gram-positive bacteria. Overall, the community-engaged research provides valuable insight on understudied communities through innovative statistical methods, and the scientific research is one of the first to integrate traditional Native knowledge with novel materials engineering.
When is a colonia no longer a colonia? the politics and process of development in informal homestead subdivisions in Texas
(2009-12) Kelley, Maritza Isaura; Ward, Peter M., 1951-; Wilson, Robert
This report will seek to identify the various factors that both enable and impede colonias and non-border colonias from developing. What processes determine the improvement of conditions in informal homestead subdivisions? Upon completing a number of interviews and extensive research, the conclusion can be reached that the various issues in policy implementation experienced with border colonias can help to inform the development of improved policies that will benefit both border and non-border colonias.