A River without Water: A Photo Essay by Eduardo Talamantes

A ferocious drought has struck Chihuahua, leaving its most important river, the Río Conchos, almost dry, and its people in dire straits.

Over the last several years, I’ve taken many trips to Chihuahua, Mexico, to work on a book about water and the border. The drought there is the worst I’ve ever seen. It was on these trips that I met Chihuahuan photographer Eduardo Talamantes, who has been diligently documenting this drought with his camera. We are pleased today to publish an essay of his photographs here at The Border Chronicle. —Todd

A River without Water: A Photo Essay by Eduardo Talamantes

A ferocious drought has struck Chihuahua, leaving its most important river, the Río Conchos, almost dry, and its people in dire straits.

An extreme drought has spread through the entire basin of the Río Conchos, Chihuahua’s largest and most important river. The Río Conchos serves as the principal tributary to the Rio Grande and is one of the main channels through which Mexico makes water deliveries to the United States in five year cycles under a 1944 treaty.

Given the drought’s severity, dam reservoirs such as La Boquilla and Las Vírgenes have reached their bare minimum. The dams have been highly contentious, especially regarding U.S.-bound water payments. The year 2020 saw conflict between farmers and military forces that had commandeered these water sources.

Now, in communities such as El Tigre and El Molino, which are represented in the following photographs, there is no longer enough water to fish or raise crops, and families are suffering.

In the high river basin of the Río Conchos in the Sierra Tarahumara, the combined impacts of deforestation and lack of rain have caused the Río Conchos and its tributaries to dry out for months. It’s deforming the territory and leaving communities to subsist and resist with what little they have.

A Chihuahuan farmer in El Molino stands in an unwatered field meant for growing chiles and onions. (April 2025)

There isn’t enough water for the community of El Tigre, Chihuahua, to fish. (January 2025)

And there is no water at the Boquilla dam reservoir for El Tigre. (January 2025)

Deforestation in the upper basin of the Río Conchos in the Sierra Tarahumara. (March 2025)

Mario Quiroz, a Rarámuri man, looks over the Río Conchos, which is almost waterless. In his childhood, the river was filled and flowing. (March 2025)

Quiroz walks along the river, which is in a state of complete drought. (March 2025)

There is so little water at the Boquilla reservoir that irrigation water for the 2025 agricultural cycle was cancelled. (August 2024)

Another inside look at the Boquilla dam at low capacity. (August 2024)

The Río Conchos in the Sierra Tarahumara, with no water. (March 2025)

Farmland in Chihuahua, abandoned for lack of rain. (April 2025)

I’m not sure what will happen in Chihuahua because of drought in the coming years, but what I do know now, with today’s lack of water, is that it is absolutely necessary to change the way that we use and utilize this vital liquid.

Eduardo Talamantes is a photographer from Camargo, Chihuahua. For years he has been documenting drought, social movements, and the natural beauty of the Chihuahuan landscape.