Water Is Sacred, and the Southwestern Acequia System Is a Traditional Practice of Equitable Distribution of This Vital Resource
By Dr. Eric Romero, HCLC member from New Mexico and faculty member at the New Mexico Highlands University in the Department of Language and Culture.
Acequias are community-governed irrigation systems common in southwestern states– particularly northern New Mexico and southern Colorado.
Although not everybody outside this region is familiar with the acequias, these human-constructed irrigation channels are a comprehensive hydrology system, ecological system, governance system, and cultural system that intertwined the designs brought by Spanish colonizers and the wisdom and knowledge of the land of the Native Americans.
Water is sacred. Water is the lifeblood of our communities. It is a given natural resource that we all have to share. The acequia is a sustainable agricultural system reliant upon ancient technologies and an equitable distribution of this vital natural resource, assuring everyone has the appropriate amounts.
We have human-created technologies and non-motorized technologies that distribute water widely. We are modifying water systems and water flow systems. When we look at the Rio Grande Valley or the Colorado River systems, for instance, we want to ensure an equitable distribution that goes to everyone who needs it.
A few years ago, I was invited to speak at a conference in California when the water reserves in the southern part of the state went down to only 10% of capacity. At this event, 80% of attendants were city planners and attorneys, wrestling water rights from one another but very few agriculturalists.
I presented our acequia governance and water distributions, the historical heritage, and traditional water distribution that ensure that everybody has a fair share. Acequias are water systems that are community-controlled and environmentally determined. For Hispanics in the southwestern states, cooperation and sharing are essential practices. Water is not to be commercialized. It's to be protected and supposed to be distributed.
Rio Grande, New Mexico
The management and distribution decision-making process is very complex because of the extended communities to work with. For instance, the Rio Grande watershed is vast, flowing interstate through Colorado, New Mexico, and Texas, and internationally (these waters also feed agricultural communities in Chihuahua, Nuevo Leon, and Monterrey in Mexico). They all should have a seat at the table and a say in their fair share without the heavy-handed politics and the commodified water system that allow big money to determine where water use resides.
We must work with the Acequia associations and the Acequias commissions to ensure that small landowners get a fair share of water. This long-established system of water distribution, community collaboration, and conservation assures an equitable sharing of resources to everyone.
As we face challenges of unprecedented drought and low water level records in some water systems across the region, we should revisit this system of cultural knowledge and adherent to principles of land stewardship, recognizing the sacred nature of water and learning how to use our natural resources appropriately.