How Our Commodification of Water Has Changed the Rio Grande (Rio Bravo)

Abstract

Conceptualizing water as a commodity alters the ways societies prioritize and allocate its use. In contemporary contexts, water functions both as a fundamental necessity for life and as an economic resource that sustains agriculture and energy production. Since water is needed for human survival (both physically and economically), we change its natural cycle in the hopes of controlling its hydrological output. Such management regulates water use for our needs to make natural cycles less variable and more predictable. This anthropocentric water management is occurring on the Rio Grande (Rio Bravo) and has significantly changed the river's natural processes and the landscape surrounding it. The Rio Grande, in 1993, earned the distinction of being the most polluted river in the United States, due to the discharge of sewage and industrial waste. We have also sought to control the physical shape of the river (the geopolitical border between the U.S. and Mexico) through the creation of levees and reducing its natural meandering course. This changes the riverine ecosystems, while also decreasing the river's structural ability to handle changes in flow. In my presentation, I will articulate how the commodification of water for economic and geopolitical uses has led to shifts in the Rio Grande’s hydrological cycles and the landscape around it.