“Water Can’t Wait” is a new public education campaign that elevates water issues in New Mexico.
The campaign is sponsored by the Water Foundation and encompasses many far reaching and innovative organizations, communities and individuals within our water-deprived State. The campaign is policy-focused and aims to ensure that addressing the water crisis is a priority for communities, local governments, and policy makers.
The campaign kickoff includes a website and an videos that highlight New Mexicans from across the state who are saying with one voice, “Water Can’t Wait.” Additional videos can be found on this website and will be promoted throughout the year on social media and other news sources. The website also includes a page with resources like the Leap Ahead analysis and the Water Task Force Recommendations. These recent and foundational documents provide a focus on our beleaguered water resources and offer practical actions that we can take to improve our water-resilience.
Audubon Southwest is an enthusiastic partner in the “Water Can’t Wait” effort. Our activities largely focus on providing environmental water to our rivers, improving policies, and increasing funding for these critical activities. An important focus of our work is to advocate for the establishment of an environmental flow program in New Mexico, a direly needed program to ensure that our rivers remain whole in the face of climate change. We are active in on-the-ground solutions such as leasing water and bring it back to the Rio Grande in Albuquerque and to the Rio Grande near Belen, New Mexico. These activities improve the habitat conditions for our rivers and birds and demonstrate how we can, through partnerships, scale out to help all New Mexican rivers.
We also advocate for policy changes and funding for water programs at the state by engaging with the State Legislature, Governor’s office, and state agencies. This includes lobbying the legislature for additional funding for programs like the River Stewardship program which does riparian restoration projects, and the Strategic Water Reserve, which allows the state to purchase water and leave it in rivers if it is to protect endangered species. We also meet regularly with agencies and the Governor’s office to voice Audubon’s priorities for state programs, and to work with them on how to make those programs more effective.
Please join our efforts by sharing “Water Can’t Wait.” Together we can adjust to our changing climate and embrace a better future for all New Mexicans.
