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Mexico – the Rio Conchos

The majestic Rio Grande

The Chihuahuan desert is the largest desert ecosystem in North America. Its unique habitats are extraordinarily rich in species - including rare plants and animals that range from big powerful predators like mountain lions, Mexican wolves and black bears through to 20% of the world’s known cacti species.

Half of the 100 species of fish found here don’t exist anywhere else. These include the Julimes pupfish, which lives in the hottest conditions of any fish in the world - in thermal springs with temperatures over 38°C.

The Chihuahuan desert is also home to five million people, including indigenous groups like the Tarahurama. Neither people nor wildlife in the desert could live without the rivers that flow through it - the Rio Conchos and the Rio Grande, or Rio Bravo as it’s known in Mexico.

A view of the Rio Conchos in the dry season, Chihuahua, Mexico.

Why we’re involved

Growth and development in the region has put pressure on the water people drink and use to grow food, for energy and for industry.

A 200km stretch of the Rio Grande downstream of El Paso, known locally as the forgotten reach, has seen the biggest impact. For much of the year, the mighty Rio Grande is no more than a trickle of unusable salty water.

The Rio Conchos, the Rio Grande’s largest tributary, has its own problems. Around 90% of the Rio Conchos’ flows are diverted into irrigation systems to support more than 10,000 farms growing thirsty crops like alfalfa and pecan.

With surface water running out, many farmers are pumping groundwater sources instead, often drying up springs and turning fields salty.

In the last 10 years there have been two notable environmental disasters:

  • In 2001, a wide sandbar appeared across the mouth of the Rio Grande. For the first time in recorded history, the river failed to empty into the Gulf of Mexico.
  • In 2003, the Rio Grande downstream of the Rio Conchos dried up. This had catastrophic consequences for the six national parks on either side of the Mexican-US border, home to much of the desert’s biodiversity.

People in Sewaivo distributing communications materials.

How we’re helping

Despite so many threats to this fragile ecosystem, there are reasons to be optimistic.

In more than a decade of working in the Chihuahuan desert, we’ve built relationships with over 60 different partners, including NGOs, and academic, state and private institutions. We’re working together to tackle the desert’s problems.

Improving understanding of river flows
We’ve spent a lot of time understanding the science. By studying river flows and groundwater levels, we’ve helped come up with a way for farmers in the Rio Conchos basin to extract less water for their crops, keeping more water in the river to help the ecosystem.

Around 90% of the Rio Conchos’ flows are diverted into irrigation systems1 to support more than 10,000 farms growing thirsty crops like alfalfa and pecan.

We’ve trained farmers and government officials to understand these issues. By 2008, we’d helped the Delicias Irrigation District cut its water use by 38% compared to 15 years before.

Influencing the government
We’ve successfully campaigned for the Mexican government to recognise the environment’s need for water in national legislation. This should help in areas where water is scarce, like the Chihuahuan desert. In fact, we got a positive sign late in 2010 when the government pledged to protect habitats and flows in the Julimes spring.

Restoring rivers
We’ve worked hard to remove invasive species like salt cedar from over 70km of river. This improves flows and habitats, and provides employment for local people.

We’ve also worked with indigenous groups in the headwaters of the Rio Conchos to protect the area, working with them on soil conservation, reforestation and protection of Conchos trout.

Keeping up the pressure
Our job is far from done. We need to continue our work with the Mexican government to make sure new legislation is put into practice, and that water policy is flexible enough to adapt to climate change.

We’ll carry on working with local communities and indigenous groups to protect more springs and restore habitats in the headwaters area. Perhaps most importantly, we’ll continue our dialogue with farmers and dam operators. Although they’ve significantly cut their water use, flows at certain times of year are still unsustainable.

1. Mary E. Kelly, The Rio Conchos: A Preliminary Overview (Texas Center for Policy Studies 2001)