Welcome to River@Risk

Welcome to River@Risk. This is a joint project of photojournalists Ronald de Hommel and Johannes Abeling. Starting in Nov. 2009 they will embark on a series of journeys where they will follow the courses of some of the world’s most important and strategic rivers. Being two photographers it will be a very visual project. They will combine reportage, portrait and landscape photography with short video clips. Ronald will also write and in the future other writers may join the project.

The idea is to record the changes that are taking place due to the changing climate. These changes can be ecological, economical, social and political. These changes can affect peoples lives directly or indirectly. We will visit farmers, factory workers, environmentalists, or just people that live near a river. We will show how man altered the flow of the water, what it did to the the land.

Rivers are more important than many people realise. Many countries in the world are almost entirely dependent on river water for their cities and agriculture. Their economies are intertwined with the state of the water supply. Cities like Las Vegas and Phoenix Arizona in the middle of a desert would not exist was it not for massive water supply canals that tap water from the Colorado River.

Pakistan, in a virtual state of war with its neighbour India depends for its survival on a few rivers (of which the Indus is the most well know). They all originate the Himalayas and run through India-controlled Kashmir. And India is building dams, officially to generate energy for its growing population. But what if they close Pakistan’s water supply? The strategic importance of the rivers is tremendous. The river Nile creates a similar situation where the whole economy of Egypt depends on the river that first flow through countries like Ethiopia, Sudan and Uganda, hardly places that are known for their political stability.

A changing climate affects the flow of rivers. Some will reduce in size, others will suffer uncontrollable floods. Once thing is for sure: they will grow in importance and nations will have to react to those changes.

Johannes and Ronald will assess the possible threats created by climate change. They will visit those places that are already of importance, but also those that may grow in importance.

For their first trip they will visit the lower reaches of the Colorado River in the American West. They will start just north of the Grand Canyon and will follow the Colorado through the states of Nevada, Arizona and California until the disappering river delta entering the Pacific Ocean in Baja California, just across the border in Mexico.

One story will feature in this trip: the Salton Sea, California’s own Aral Sea-like disaster.

This website is set up as a weblog. New posts will be added on top in the Weblog Category, but can also be accessed through the Colorado or Salton Sea categories. Multimedia posts can be found through the Video and Slideshow categories.

This weblog is the first step in a multimedia project where Johannes and Ronald will present images, videos stories and interviews all related to rivers at risk. For now this website has the shape of a weblog. New posts will be uploaded regularly during the trip but also after returning home. Keep checking regularly or subscribe to the RRS feed or newsletter.

In the future this website will be expanded with more multi media features.

Enjoy!

Ronald & Johannes.