Skin color plays a role in access to clean water and sanitation, MSU Sociology researchers find

September 8, 2026 - Karessa Weir

Skin color plays a role in water quality and sanitation, even in places where everyone seems to be the same race, MSU Sociology researchers found.  

In apparently homogeneous societies such as Jamaica, the darker your skin color, the less likely you are to have reliably safe and clean water, found Sociology Assistant Professor Monique D. A.  Kelly, Associate Professors Jennifer Carrera and Stephen Gasteyer, together with Sociology PhD students Tiffany Williams and Angelica De Jesus.  

“Darker-skinned individuals experience persistent disadvantages, even after accounting for urbanization and other sociodemographic characteristics,” they found. “By incorporating skin color alongside self-identification, we provide deeper insight into racialized stratification, particularly in postcolonial, color-stratified societies like Jamaica.” 

The research article ‘“Racial’ Disparities in Access to Water and Sanitation in Jamaica” was published in the journal Race and Social Problems. 

The researchers examined whether United Nations Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) standards were met equitably across the island nation, and to gauge whether, after the adaptation of the UN sustainable development goals, if effective progress has been made.  UN reported that 96 percent of Jamaicans had access to “improved drinking water sources” in 2023 with sanitation coverage reported at 99 percent overall.  

However other surveys show that only 60 percent of urban and 45 percent of rural Jamaicans have water piped into their homes.  The remainder relied on nearby standpipes for drinking water. This disparity hits the poorest Jamaicans who “experience infrastructural deficits in both quality and access.” 

“Climate and economic barriers persist precisely because mainstream development regimes ignore – or actively reinforce – their root causes,” researchers found. “These regimes often operate under colonial, racist and gendered logics that maintain patters of underdevelopment.” 

Using data collected by the AmericansBarometer social survey, the researchers focused on whether people had reported having access indoor plumbing and water. Those surveyed could self-identify as Black, mixed, East Indian or other (which includes white).  Given that most Jamaicans identify as Black, skin color was recorded by the surveyors on an 11-point scale from lightest to darkest.  

Recording skin color was also done because of the differential ‘racial logic’ of the region (i.e., the rest of the Americas aside from North America); where pigmentocracy/skin color matters equally or sometimes more than census racial categories in determining life outcomes, Kelly said. 

“Findings indicate that respondents with lighter skin have greater odds of having household access to water compared to their darker-skinned counterparts,” they wrote. “The results reveal a clear gradient: as skin color darkens, the predicted probability of having household access to water declines steadily.” 
Williams, who is completing her dissertation on the intersection of race and environment in U.S. communities, looked at the data with an international lens.  

“The disparities you see in Jamaica are not exactly as you would see them in the U.S. because in Caribbean countries, race is not just your ethnicity but your skin tone also,” Williams said. “People who have darker skin have less access to things in Jamaica and are not necessarily in a racial binary like we are used to in the United States.” 

“What it basically boils down to is the legacy of colonialism and the underlying reason why these problems persist.” 
De Jesus approached the project with a Black, Indigenous, feminist lens and focused on the lived experience of how a history of racism, sexism and colonialism affect access.  

“This research adds to the international conversations about water justice, of the problems of access to water and the ability of communities to advocate for themselves,” she said.  

The researchers hope their findings will help identify specific gaps in water and sanitation access and locate at-risk communities that might be otherwise overlooked. 

“Meaningful sustainability efforts must address the interconnections between uneven development and racist colonial histories.”