When the Rio Grande figures in US news reports, it’s usually in relation to stories about immigration, drug trafficking or trade. But the river is also an important water source – and it’s shrinking.
Once again, First Nations in the Murray-Darling Basin have been shortchanged in water reform and shortchanged in the water market. It’s time to listen and actually deliver tangible outcomes.
Water spills over the Copco 1 Dam on the Klamath River near Hornbrook, Calif.
AP Photo/Gillian Flaccus
The largest dam removal project is moving forward on the Klamath River in California and Oregon. Tribal nations there have fought for decades to protect native fish runs and the ecology of the river.
A water pump outside a home on the Navajo Nation in Thoreau, N.M.
Spencer Platt/Getty Images
Kat Taylor, Australian National University; Anne Poelina, University of Notre Dame Australia, and Quentin Grafton, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University
In the struggle against aqua nullius, Indigenous people’s right to make decisions about water on Country is a priority.
Sign at a boat ramp on Lake Mead, near Boulder City, Nevada, Aug. 13, 2021. The lake currently is roughly two-thirds empty.
AP Photo/John Locher
A Western scholar proposes allocating water from the Colorado River based on percentages of its actual flow instead of fixed amounts that exceed what’s there – and including tribes this time.
Aboriginal people from Daly River gather water lily stems, flowers and seeds in a billabong. They also feel for long-neck turtles with their feet.
David Hancock Copyright: SkyScans
The Supreme Court recently dealt defeat to Florida in its 20-year legal battle with Georgia over river water. Other interstate water contests loom, but there are no sure winners in these lawsuits.
The Bui Dam was the subject of political contestation during its construction.
ZSM/Wikimedia Commons
The decision recognises that water rights are critical for Indigenous people to restore customs, protect their culture, become economically independent and heal Country.
Across the NSW portion of the Murray-Darling Basin, Aboriginal people make up almost 10% of the population. Yet they hold a mere 0.2% of all available surface water.
These days, the river barely makes it to its mouth in the Dead Sea.
Christopher Sprake / shutterstock
From mass climate change movements to cultural genocide of Uighurs in China, here are some of the headline human rights moments that captured Australia’s attention.
A farmer weeding his maize crop south of Harare, Zimbabwe.
EPA/ Aaron Ufumeli
Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack has suggested changing the rules to allow ‘environmental’ water to be diverted to drought-hit farms. But the idea would be far less straightforward in practice.
Bob Katter leads a group of farmers out of the royal commission hearing in Brisbane.
AAP
A number of factors have contributed to the horrible stories coming out of the Royal Commission, including market instability and the financialisation of farming.
Traditional owners on the Wimmera River, western Victoria, conducting Aboriginal waterways assessment.
MLDRIN