Often called the “lifeblood of northern New Mexico,” acequias are collectively tended, democratically governed irrigation ditches, primarily located in the north-central part of the state. The term acequia can refer either to the ditch or to the collection of people who rely on it to irrigate their crops. Those people are called parciantes. They possess a right to a quantity of water determined by the needs of all parciantes along the ditch and the availability of water throughout the entire stream system. They elect a mayordomo to oversee the distribution of water and repairs and maintenance. They also elect commissioners, typically a treasurer, a secretary and a chair.

Running from the rivers are channels with dams, which the mayordomo can open to direct the water down the acequia to the parciantes. Sometimes several acequias depend on a single diversion dam, called a presa. Irrigators move the water through their fields by using rocks and earth to sculpt and shift their own channels.

Acequias have been shown to be ecologically beneficial and have sustained communities in northern New Mexico for centuries. They’ve been celebrated as a model of how we can share resources in the climate crisis, and as an example of enduring resistance to U.S. colonialism and capitalism. Around northern New Mexico, signs and bumper stickers read “El Agua es Vida.”

But as drought intensifies, and commercial development expands, acequias also face multiple challenges: a lower flow; pollution (whether it’s commercial entities dumping chemicals, or individuals dumping septic waste); construction on irrigable land; adjudications over water rights; out migration of the younger generations that would participate in acequia traditions to more urban areas.

There are, however, several young farmers who are working hard to celebrate and protect land and water-based traditions.

Further reading:

Enduring Acequias: Wisdom of the Land, Knowledge of the Water 
(Juan Estevan Arellano)

Acequia Culture: Water, Land, and Community in the Southwest 
(José A. Rivera)

Water for the People: The Acequia Heritage of New Mexico in a Global Context
(Edited by Enrique R. Lamadrid and José A. Rivera)