Rodríguez-Guerrero, Luis AlejandroPérez-Urdiales, IratxeEscrig-Piñol, AstridJiménez-Lasserrotte, María Del MarPastor-Bravo, María Del MarMateos, José TomásBriones Vozmediano, Erica2024-10-212024-10-212024Rodríguez-Guerrero LA, Pérez-Urdiales I, Escrig-Piñol A, Jiménez-Lasserrotte MDM, Pastor-Bravo MDM, Mateos JT, et al. Water insecurity among seasonal agriculture workers: perspectives from Spanish professionals. Int J Equity Health. 2024 Feb 16;23(1):31. DOI: 10.1186/s12939-024-02112-81475-9276http://hdl.handle.net/10230/68270Background: Migrant seasonal agricultural workers face conditions of material vulnerability such as inadequate housing difficulties prevent access to running water supplies. The purpose of this study is to explore the perceptions of professionals involved in the care and support of seasonal migrant agricultural workers, as it relates to water access and water consumption and their impact on these workers' health, in a context of COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: A qualitative exploratory and descriptive study was conducted in 2021 as part of a larger research project, based on 63 personal semi-structured interviews with professionals who provided support to seasonal migrant agricultural workers in three Spanish autonomous regions. COREQ checklist was used for reporting. The interviews were recorded, transcribed, and imported into ATLAS.ti-9 for an inductive thematic analysis. Results: The results have been structured into two main themes: (1) Accessing and obtaining water; and (2) Health problems related to water consumption. Seasonal migrant agricultural workers experience barriers to obtaining safe water for hygiene, cleaning, food preparation and drinking. The implementation of regulations to reduce COVID-19 transmission resulted in improved hygiene levels in the migrants' quarters, including access to safe drinking water. Conclusion: This study suggests that water insecurity experienced by migrant seasonal agricultural workers in Spain results from their poor living conditions and causes health problems related to a lack of hygiene and the use of unsafe water. Sustainable solutions are needed beyond the pandemic in order to provide migrant workers with adequate living conditions and ensure their water needs are fulfilled.application/pdfeng© The Author(s) 2024. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data.info:eu-repo/semantics/articlehttp://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12939-024-02112-8Agricultural workers’ diseasesCOVID-19Qualitative researchTransients and migrantsWater intoxicationinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess