The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) will lead the development of a health impact assessment (HIA) program for the border region. The primary goal of the new project is to build capacity in the region to conduct HIAs and to promote their use as a tool to look at the potential health impacts of proposed infrastructure improvements or policy changes.
UTEP’s program will focus on water, sanitation and public transportation improvements. It has three components: 1) HIA training for students at UTEP and New Mexico State University; 2) an HIA focused on plans to extend public transportation from Las Cruces to the communities of Sunland Park, Santa Teresa, Anthony, and Chaparral, New Mexico; and 3) development and pilot testing of a model for assessing health impacts of water and sanitation in border communities using the case of the colonia Las Pampas, near Presidio, Texas.
The colonia Las Pampas relies on hauled water from the City of Presidio. The HIA in southern New Mexico will evaluate the impacts of public transportation on access to health care, jobs and education for low-income residents. This new project builds on the experience of UTEP in leading the demonstration of HIA as a tool for water and sanitation projects in the Village of Vinton, Texas. Extending that project’s success to the border region calls for a bigger investment but holds much promise for improving decision making surrounding infrastructure projects that would impact public health in the border region.
UTEP received a grant of $250,000 from the Health Impact Project, a collaboration of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and The Pew Charitable Trusts based in Washington, D.C., to develop the program. UTEP’s Center for Environmental Resources Management (CERM) will lead the project in collaboration with the Border Environment Cooperation Commission (BECC), the Pan American Health Organization, New Mexico State University (NMSU), the South Central Regional Transportation District of New Mexico and the city of Presidio.
“The health of residents in communities with few transportation options can be dramatically improved when public transportation becomes available. The HIA will enable us to measure that impact,” said Sharon Thomas, chair of the South Central Regional Transit District’s Citizen Committee and former mayor pro tem of the City of Las Cruces.
“Healthy environments contribute to healthy people, and clean water and proper waste management are fundamental to good public health,” said Bill Hargrove, Ph.D., director of CERM at UTEP. “Our HIA in colonia Las Pampas will document the health impacts of access to good quality water.”
BECC leaders plan to use an HIA process for many of their environmental infrastructure projects. The model developed for water and sanitation improvements will be especially useful to BECC in order to evaluate impacts of their infrastructure projects in the U.S.-Mexico border region.
The assessment team will utilize community-based participatory research methods, which means they will draw heavily on information and perceptions of community members and leaders in both southern Doña Ana County and Las Pampas/Presidio. Their input will be gathered through surveys, interviews, focus groups and public meetings.
Students from UTEP and NMSU will participate in the field research activities and learn how to conduct HIAs.
The Health Impact Project is dedicated to promoting the use of health impact assessments in the United States. More information, including a searchable map of HIA activity, is available at www.healthimpactproject.org.