No people can better illustrate the catastrophic consequences of a mismanaged water resource than the Colorado River's indigenous Cucapa. For over 1,000 years the ancestors of the Cucapa people, otherwise known as the "river people," lived as subsistence nomads on fish and plentiful wildlife provided by the Colorado River Delta. Dammed for agricultural and municipal use in the...
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No people can better illustrate the catastrophic consequences of a mismanaged water resource than the Colorado River's indigenous Cucapa. For over 1,000 years the ancestors of the Cucapa people, otherwise known as the "river people," lived as subsistence nomads on fish and plentiful wildlife provided by the Colorado River Delta. Dammed for agricultural and municipal use in the North, the river no longer arrives to their arid land in North-East Mexico. And the Cucapa people, culture, and language face extinction.

Fifty years ago, the Cucapa numbered more then 3,000. Now fewer then 200 remain. Only a handful of elders speak the indigenous dialect. And the indigenous community is split into three groups that bitterly dispute over how to manage their paltry resources.

The few waterways are lime green salty effluent from agricultural and city run-off farther north. People stopped bathing in these waters over ten years ago, when they noticed lesions on their skin. Even the underground water tables are poisoned. Water used for drinking and cooking must be purchased.

"We live very poor here," says Juana Aguilar. "Two years ago I couldn't afford to purchase water and my kids were really sick from drinking the dirty water."

Subsistence fishing was the daily way of life for these people. Now the Cucupa fishermen are resigned to three-month-per-year permits and must tow their boats two hours to a polluted gulf, there only fishing source.

Environmental researchers believe that as little as 1% of the Colorado river's natural flow might be enough to put the Delta on life-support. They also argue this can be achieved through simple water conservation measures. The problem is the lack of political will to make changes in water policy on both sides of the border. Stuck tragically in the middle are the indigenous Cucupa who have no voice in the fate of their resources, no power over their very survival.

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