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Polk County, Des Moines Water Works and University of Iowa launch outreach to address bottled-water reliance among immigrants and refugees
Summary
County-funded research found most interviewed recent immigrants and refugees in Polk County rely on bottled water; partners propose multilingual outreach, facility tours and a ‘Water for All’ ambassador academy funded from an existing $150,000 county budget.
Jennifer Terry, a project presenter working with Polk County, introduced an outreach effort on immigrant and refugee tap-water use and described how a partnership with Des Moines Water Works and the University of Iowa traced targeted bottled-water marketing and information gaps among recently arrived households.
The partnership — funded initially by Des Moines Water Works research and later by Polk County — is developing a science-based outreach campaign called “Water for All” to give immigrant and refugee households accessible, multilingual information about local tap water and how it is treated.
Dr. Samantha Zolke, assistant professor in the University of Iowa School of Planning and Public Affairs, summarized summer interviews and focus groups with 22 people from six countries and four languages. “Of the 22 people we interviewed, 21 people primarily drank bottled water,” Zolke said, attributing purchases to beliefs that bottled water is…
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