No Water No Life

By combining the powers of photography, science and local stakeholder knowledge, NWNL strives to enhance awareness of the values and vulnerability of global freshwater resources, as well as sustainable watershed management solutions.

In 2006, NWNL began documenting water quality and availability in 6 North American and African watersheds. For 18 years, NWNL has produced and archived 85,000 images from 75 watershed expeditions, 453 taped “Voices of the River’ interviews, 16 years of NWNL Blogs, 10 years of Weekly News DROPs, and numerous print publications, lectures and exhibits. Using its research and expedition findings, NWNL also shares stewardship models from both developed and developing regions that promote greater water-use efficiency, environmental restoration, transboundary agreements, community-based conservation, environmental justice and watershed education.

As the world’s 4th largest watershed and 4th longest river, the Mississippi River Basin is vital to US security and economy. Its tributaries cross 41% of the lower 48 states, providing commercial waterways and water for industry, farming and residential use. Originally home to many Native American tribes, this vast Mississippi Basin stretches from the Appalachian Mountains west to the Rocky Mountains and from Canada south to the Gulf of Mexico. Its watershed stewards now focus on climate change impacts; Indigenous rights; infrastructure; agricultural, industrial and urban pollution; loss of forests; and biodiversity threats.

The Raritan River Basin drains water from 7 New Jersey counties and 49 municipalities into a 70-mile river that flows into the NY-NJ Hudson Estuary. Upstream, the New Jersey Highlands produce clear trout streams; yet its densely populated main stem and terminal bay still face 200 years of industrial pollution. The Upper Raritan struggles to preserve farms and open space, while growing deer populations threaten forest renewal. The Lower Raritan, one of the most polluted U.S. rivers, and the river’s terminal Raritan Bay still struggles to control runoff of chemical toxins and urban waste. Flood damage is increasing due to impervious urban land cover and climate change. Upstream and downstream, stewards work with Rutgers University scientists to solve a wide range of challenges.

The Columbia River Basin, spanning 1 Canadian province, 7 US states and 11 Tribal Nations, pours more water into the Pacific Ocean than any other N or S American river. Upper Columbia tributaries emanate from the Rockies, Selkirks, Cascades and coastal mountains; but receding glaciers and less snowpack are reducing their flows. The greatest environmental force in the Pacific Northwest, the Columbia powers over 400 hydro-dams and carries water for irrigation, salmon, urban needs. Industrial, nuclear, mining and agricultural waste threaten water quality and extraction of timber, water and fish weaken ecosystems and Canada, U.S. and Tribal Nations relationships. Yet, current Columbia Basin Treaty renegotiations could become a successful transboundary management model.

The Omo River Basin cradles a 621-mile river tumbling from Ethiopia’s monsoonal highlands to a desert lake mostly within Kenya. Indigenous Omo cultures have been self-sustaining for 6,000 years by using traditional flood-recession agriculture. New hydro-dams to irrigate Asian sugar and cotton plantations have now ended those floods, leaving Omo tribes to fight drought, famine, racism, a lack of clean water and sanitation and dislocation. Kenya’s Lake Turkana receives 90% of its volume from the Omo, but now Ethiopia’s irrigation projects could reduce the lake’s volume by 70%. 

Omo dams and large-scale agriculture could bring food security, flood control and power. Proposed roads, markets and water/food storage facilities could counter the loss of rain-dependent subsistence farming. Yet an influx of foreigners, commercial irrigation, village displacement and loss of fisheries supplies may destroy this Cradle of Humankind, its cultures and its ecosystems.

The Mara River Basin is renowned for its 2 million wildebeest and zebra that famously cross the Mara River annually for water. Recent community-based efforts within the Maasai Mara Game Reserve are working to protect this 8th Wonder of the World. Its source, the 1-million-acre Mau Forest Complex, is Kenya’s largest water catchment, providing water to the Mara River and millions of people in Kenya, Tanzania and the Lake Victoria Basin. 

Yet illegal deforestation and encroachment have destroyed 40% of the Mau Forest. Further downstream, a proposed Serengeti Highway would bisect Serengeti NP, threaten migrating wildlife and disrupt the Mara River Basin’s World Heritage Site ecosystems. Gold mine and farm run-off as well as invasive species clog Lake Victoria’s shores with algae blooms. Reforestation, limits on tourism growth and family planning are now regional priorities to protect the Mara’s rivers, lakes, migratory species and ecosystems in the Rift Valley, Western Kenya and greater Nile River Basin.

The Nile is the world’s longest river and its basin spans 1/10th of Africa. Millions in 11 Nile countries depend on the Nile and face transboundary desertification and conflicts of water overuse. Challenged by competing needs, deforestation, climate change impacts and water rights threats from new mega-dams, local wells barely support irrigation, drinking, cooking and sanitation needs. Shorter wet seasons and longer droughts add to food scarcity. A 1959 Nile Treaty granted all Nile water use to Egypt (87%) and Sudan (13%), even denying water rights to Ethiopia which supplies 86% of the Nile’s volume. As Ethiopia builds Africa’s largest hydro-dam on the Nile; Egypt and Sudan threaten retaliation. The transboundary Nile Basin Initiative hopes to solve these water and food security disputes, while millions starve and lack electricity, 

California’s Megadrought - 8 Expeditions

Ancient Rome’s Water Infrastructure - 1 Expedition

India’s Ganges River Basin - 1 Expedition

Kenya’s Amboseli-Tsavo Ecosystem - 10 Expeditions

Solutions for saving our freshwater resources start with science. Yet scientists need activists to help fix what we’ve damaged. “If you want to go far, go together,” as the African proverb says. 

NWNL has listened to the strong concerns and needs of Native Americans, First Nations and East African tribes. Inspired by their creation myths, they care deeply about our waters. Fortunately, their activism is often legally backed by rights given to them in historic treaties. Other effective change agents include teachers, journalists, historians, farmers, boat builders, musicians - and you!

Our next self-published NWNL photo book, “Rivers from the Sky,” should be ready by late 2023. It showcases rivers’ natural beauty, patterns and colors, while highlighting global challenges such as pollution, deforestation and climate change. All our previous NWNL books can be viewed at our  NWNL Store.  Our photography can be seen on  Photo Shelter .  

To help promote the voices of our youth, NWNL has supported watershed education. Our  NWNL NextGen Blogs  series encouraged student interest in freshwater challenges and solutions and provided publication opportunities, during the COVID years especially, for those in college and recent grads. This encouraged youth to focus on future solutions ranging from possible to extraordinary. In total, NWNL has published 101 NextGen Blogs by 27 global students. We thank all student writers for their contributions! 

Inspired by current national justice initiatives, NWNL is focused on social and environmental injustices noted on its expeditions - from Cajun-Creole families in the Mississippi River Delta fleeing sea level rise, to Kenyan fishermen and Ethiopian pastoralists in the Omo River Basin losing water resources due to new Gibe Dams. NWNL has also covered other environmental justice issues in our NWNL Blog, NextGen Blog and Weekly News DROP.

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