CONCLUSION

There is a complex connection between Louisiana’s traumatic relationship to water and the concentration of NCDs. Water has been weaponised as a vessel that carries sickness into neighbourhoods and communities. From a biological perspective, the incidence of trauma and high levels of daily stressors can, in itself be evidenced to increase the risk of chronic illness. With acknowledgment of stressors and with social, medical, educational and infrastructural support, these stressors have the capacity to be diluted or redirected and thus reducing the rates of NCDs. However, seeds of trauma are being implanted directly into the vanishing water supplies and the infrastructures that are meant to regulate them and forms of toxic governmentality are curtailing recovery and improvement.  

A complete irrigation of corruption in political, social and environmental infrastructures will help the residents of Louisiana recover and thrive; and protect them from further displacement and trauma. Dismantling the harmful scaffolding of neoliberal infrastructure is a complex, hopeless (and often thankless task), recovering worlds lost is another question all together. Neoliberalism has become a rot that subjugates culture, people, particularly those who have traumatic histories. If we cannot acknowledge our own positionality within these violent structures of power we will remain part of the problem when we could be part of the solution.  

It is not hard to see how some have compared the treatment and abandonment of these communities (and the infrastructures that are meant to hold them together) with the dynamics of power that existed during colonial rule and slavery and we see the choice to demarcate certain areas, to make sick or silence communities further illustrating the dominant neo-liberal capillary powers at play here. Once we do start to look more closely at, and listen to, the various contextual narratives which both precede and run alongside eachother, we may see that the treatment of these populations starts to resemble something more akin to first world ethnic cleansing. The way we see and speak about these abuses of power and position is a key factor in pursuing a direction of change and dismantling the rhetoric that is currently propping up the colonial systems of power that are creating these disparities and causing mass sickness and death.  

With the climate crisis hot on our heels, it is imperative that we work towards a climate of change and better regulation of the chemical and petrochemical industry should be priority in ensuring the future of Louisiana both geographically and socially. These issues are not new but are now reaching a measure that has the potential to have entirely irreversible damage. The neoliberal weaponization of water has become a permeating threat. If left unregulated and without adequate infrastructural regulation, the substance is headed on course to devastate both the environment and the people of New Orleans and Southern Louisiana. It is essential to interrogate the language used around traumatic environmental events to ensure accountability for any changes that are required to work towards reclaiming a ’natural’ environment. 

Due to the prioritisation of corporate interest coupled with the long-standing social prejudices, means that little is being done to remedy the complex health crisis in the area and there is much denial that it even exists on the level that it does. Without adequate infrastructural mechanisms that safeguard the community from threats posed by natural disasters, or from exposure to toxic waste, the epidemic of trauma and NCDs will continue to surge in South Louisiana.  

Thanks to the University of Edinburgh for the opportunity and funding to undertake this research as well as all residents of New Orleans for being so welcoming and helpful with my research.