Last year, reporter Jack Herrera traveled the length of the Rio Grande basin – from its source in Colorado to the Gulf of Mexico. He found that the water crisis in the region is worse than anyone imagines.  ”It’s not a metaphor, it’s not a hyperbole, we’re in a water war,” Jack said. 

About 15 million people get their drinking water from the Rio Grande. And the river sustains billions of dollars in agricultural production. But that river is running dry.

In a wide ranging piece for the magazine Texas Monthly, Jack untangled the origins of the water crisis in the Rio Grande. He talked to Latino USA host Maria Hinojosa about the consequences of that crisis for the region and its people. As well as the bitter dispute for control of that water between citizens and their governments, and even between the United States and Mexico.

Latino USA is the longest-running news and culture radio program in the U.S., centering Latino stories and hosted by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Maria Hinojosa.

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Host: Maria Hinojosa

Producer: Rebeca Ibarra

Editor: Fernanda Echavarri

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Executive Producers: Peniley Ramirez and Maria Hinojosa