U.S. Mexico

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Just south of the Rio Grande River, there lies a country with high levels of poverty and a nation without access to water or sanitation.

Though so close to the United States, the living conditions for a majority of the population could not be any different. In stirring detail, a child recounts how his ancestors used the water that they had, and how fleeting that precious resource is.

The story encapsulates a generational sense that the narrator’s own ways of living will soon be gone. “Here in the desert, water is a treasure. This river is our oasis in the desert, and the water not only satisfies our thirst, but is used in all parts of our life, what we eat, how we work, our recreation and the sacred things in which we believe.

Our grandparents remember before there was plenty of game to hunt, the people hunted and now everything is finished, only little birds and very little fish are left. Everything is dry, everything is lost, and everything was good. The people lost everything, everyone is poor.

The birds are also poor, at this time no one has anything to eat and we are all suffering because we do not have water, we are poor because we do not have water. We survive together with the river, because of this we are requesting water, if we do not have water we are going to die with all of the birds.

Now, the river water is contaminated, and we cannot drink the water or swim and the flow of river is so low we cannot sail in it like before, there are less fish and there is not enough access for everyone, although we have access to clean water from other places, the river is significantly lower than in the past. We do not have the opportunities that we had in the past and many must go somewhere else to obtain the future they desire. Everyone takes the water that they need, the farmers, the cities and each need more and more water but no one thinks about our community and that the environment also needs its share of the water. The Colorado River was mighty and now it is very smaller and polluted.

I believe that the greatness of society is not what it constructs, but what it does not destroy. It is not the victims or the vast agricultural fields that are important to all of the communities that live on the banks of the Colorado River, but the way that we conserve the environment and managed it as a whole. We have lived years conserving our surroundings and we aspire to have the same opportunities for the future”

Some of Mexico’s environmental issues include: natural freshwater resources are scarce and polluted in the north, are inaccessible and of poor quality in the center and extreme southeast; raw sewage and industrial effluents pollute rivers

in urban areas; deforestation; widespread erosion; desertification; serious air pollution in the national capital and urban centers along US-Mexico border. The nation’s capital Mexico City contains 19.5 million people, making it the second largest city in the world. Mexico and the United States share a near 2,000 mile border, and some 350 million people cross it legally every year. Currently, illegal immigration persists as a divisive issue between Mexico and the United States. Two societies, although so close, could not differ further economically.