King’s Water has underwent a consequential year during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Thanks to our dedicated researchers, such as Dr. Katie Meehan, we have continued to inform the public about water’s critical role in society. Meehan’s earlier work has highlighted water insecurity in the global north and water accessibility for minority communities in the United States. Her work has been featured in The Guardian, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, and even got a shout out from United States Senator Cory Booker (NJ).
Dr. Meehan and several of her colleagues have recently made new discoveries on the perceptions of water sources among “elite populations”. They argue that “elite capture” plays a critical role in devaluing municipal tap water despite elite populations being a beneficiary. Attitudes towards tap water create a socially constructed hierarchy of water sources. Within that hierarchy, bottled water such as the brands Fiji and Dasani can be found on top. In the middle are sources such as suburban tap, well, and boiled tap water, which are viewed as less favourable to their bottled counterparts. The water sources that have the least favourable opinion are recycled house and rainwater. If you would like to learn more about this work, click on the image below.
