In Botswana, a country the size of France with a population of just 1.6 million, one might imagine that competition for the water of the Delta—from humans, anyway—is not that fierce. One might argue that this is why the Okavango has remained one of the most pristine wetlands on Earth, largely undeveloped, the wildlife free to roam.

But this is not the case. The Okavango River Basin extends some 700,000 square kilometers across Angola, Namibia, and Botswana. Not only does the Delta in its natural state face threats from human populations and agricultural interests in Botswana itself, but also it risks diversion for dams and fresh water supplies by the people living in these neighboring countries to the North.

OKACOM, the Okavango River Basin Permanent Commission, signed an agreement in 1994 that commits Angola, Namibia, and Botswana to coordinating environmentally sustainable water resources development, while addressing the socio-economic needs of each. In fact, one of the reasons why I wanted to come here was to explore the rare and admirable cooperation between these nations.

Portia Segomelo has been on the Commission since it was founded, representing Botswana. She exudes a soft-spoken, eloquent confidence. She explains, “The thing that brought us together is the principle that water is life. Regardless of where you are sitting, or the boundaries of countries, there will always be a need for water…In Botswana, we have the benefit of the tourism industry because Angola and Namibia allow water to flow here. So we share those benefits upstream, investing in research and management of the water resources.”

The process is long and expensive, Portia says, both in terms of time and money. It’s challenging to ensure that everyone’s views are represented. But the advantages are immeasurable. “We have not fought over water yet. We see water as a source of cooperation.”

This week Alexandra Cousteau and the Expedition Blue Planet crew caught up with Onkokame Kitso Mokaila Botswana’s Minister of the Environment, Wildlife, and Tourism. The Bostwana government is considered a role model in terms of its careful management of the environment, which it values as a precious resource—and major source of tourism-generated income. The Minister discussed the importance of involving all stakeholders in the conversation, including agriculture, fisheries, tourism, wildlife, cattle ranchers, and the people of Botswana as well as Namibia and Angloa, where the Delta’s water originates. He was clearly proud of his country and its President, Lieutenant General Seretse Khama Ian Khama, whom he said “is a conservationist through and through.”

“We have a saying,” Minister Mokaila said. “Every river has its people… It’s all about water. It’s all about water. Maybe in some countries water is taken for granted. For us it’s not because it’s not readily available. It’s like gold to us. Water is life!” Amazing: he even said our Expedition slogan unprompted!

This week Alexandra Cousteau and the Expedition Blue Planet crew talk to Professor Veer Bhadra Mishra about India’s mighty Ganges River. He has worked for the past 25 years with William Oswald, an engineering professor emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley, on a sewage treatment system (called AIWPS), which uses gravity to carry wastewater to ponds where bacteria and algae naturally eliminate toxins and purify the water over a period of 45 days. After decades of lobbying and what Mishra describes as “persistence, resilience, and optimism,” the Indian government finally approved a pilot program this past year, a tremendous victory.

Who is Professor Veer Bhadra Mishra?

As the mahant, or spiritual and administrative head, of the second largest Hindu temple in Varanasi, Veer Bhadra Mishra carries a tremendous weight on his shoulders. He inherited the family job at just 14, when his father passed away. Yet in spite of the pressure of being a priest, he was the first in his family to attend university, where he studied hydraulics engineering and later became head of the department. As if that weren’t enough to take on already, in 1982 he set up the Sankat Mochan Foundation, an NGO devoted to cleaning up the Ganges, which in 1999 earned him the Time magazine honor of “Hero of the Planet.”

What are the wetlands?

They are a watery world painted eighteen subtle shades of green: a layer of neon algae carpeting the bayou; cypress trees reaching skyward surrounded by stump-like roots bending two feet out of the water known as their “knees,” eerie pale moss dangling from branches. Areas of thick chartreuse grass that look impassable to the unpracticed eye but with air boats one can actually float atop the water.

There are alligators sunbathing along the riverbanks and peering suspiciously through their bubble eyes, dipping below the surface when one ventures too close. Birds call out from trees and brush. Geese fly overhead. Ducks meander in and out of the swamp grass. A water snake slithers past. Here and there, one can spy evidence of humanity: abandoned fishing and hunting camps, mostly, but also the occasional refrigerator someone has illegally dumped (this is apparently a big problem in Jean Lafitte.) A few fisherman glide past on their boats, giving a cheerful wave. Other that that, it feels forgotten, as though a dense cloud of peaceful slumber had descended upon the swamps.

They are perfection, one of the last great refuges for wildlife, a landscape that deserves the right to exist.

This week, Alexandra Cousteau and the Expedition Blue Planet crew talk to musician and “voice of the wetlands,” Tab Benoit. Tragically, Louisiana’s wetlands are disappearing—and disappearing fast. So fast, in fact, that if you buy a map of the coastline of Louisiana, it’ll be no good just five years from now.

Why save the wetlands?

These wetlands serve as more than a relaxing place to hunt, fish, and birdwatch. They also filter harmful chemicals out of the water, work like speed bumps for hurricanes, and play a critical role in supporting the land structure of all New Orleans. Without them, and with the compounding effects of climate change causing sea levels to rise, New Orleans might very well sink or be blown away into oblivion. If land loss continues at the current rate of 34 square miles per year, Louisiana will shrink another 700 square miles by 2060.

What’s behind the disappearing wetlands?

Channels, levees, locks and dams separate over 90 percent of the Mississippi River south of St Louis all the way to New Orleans from its floodplains. People have been busy constructing such water management devices since the French first settled the region in 1720. But they interfere with the delta’s natural regulation of water flow: three miles of wetlands can reduce water storm surge height by a foot. In addition, jetties extend far out into the Gulf of Mexico to ensure a channel wide and deep enough for barges to travel up the Mississippi River. But these same jetties carry sediments out to sea that otherwise would be forming new land to help offset the loss of old land.

Alexandra Cousteau and her crew explore the importance of Cambodia’s Tonle Sap River and lake for Expedition Blue Planet. The Tonle Sap lies in the heart of the Mekong Delta in Cambodia. It is one of the most productive inland fisheries in the world. The Tonle Sap’s abundant inhabitants provide about 82% of the protein for Cambodians. During monsoon season, the lake expands to roughly five times its normal size, jumping from 3,000 square kilometers to about 13,000 square kilometers. The Mekong River also forces the Tonle Sap to reverse its flow during the rainy season, blessing the area with a healthy abundance of fish. Fishing is inextricably tied to the daily needs of Cambodians. Stay tuned for part 2 of Tonle Sap: Pulse of Life.

This week Alexandra Cousteau and the Expedition Blue Planet crew finish their thought provoking interviews with farmers and fishermen that make their living along the Mississippi River. In a general sense, both farmers and fishermen survive off the land. They may not consider themselves environmentalists, yet the livelihoods of both groups are inextricably linked to the health of the planet. Since the arrival of the Gulf of Mexico “dead zone” the fishermen are finding a once vibrant ocean completely void of life and agricultural fertilizers are mostly to blame. When nitrogen and phosphorous from fertilizers travel down the Mississippi River and into the Gulf of Mexico, it makes algae blossom. When that happens, the algae use up all the oxygen in the ocean. When they die off, they sink to the bottom and use more oxygen. It creates a layer of water in the Gulf that cannot support life. Fish and shrimp flee the liquid graveyard, but anything that can’t move out of its way including coral, oysters, and clams dies. The result is a shocking gap in marine life for over 8,000 square miles (20,000 square kilometers). And with production of corn, a fertilizer-intensive crop, on the increase due to ethanol subsidies to farmers, the Dead Zone is only intensifying and growing with each passing year. 40 percent of Americas land drains out the mouth of the Mississippi.

This week Alexandra Cousteau and the Expedition Blue Planet crew talk to the farmers and fishermen in the Mississippi River. In a general sense, both farmers and fishermen survive off the land. They may not consider themselves environmentalists, yet the livelihoods of both groups are inextricably linked to the health of the planet. Since the arrival of the Gulf of Mexico “dead zone” the fishermen are finding a once vibrant ocean completely void of life and agricultural fertilizers are mostly to blame. When nitrogen and phosphorous from fertilizers travel down the Mississippi River and into the Gulf of Mexico, it makes algae blossom. When that happens, the algae use up all the oxygen in the ocean. When they die off, they sink to the bottom and use more oxygen. It creates a layer of water in the Gulf that is void of oxygen where nothing can survive. Fish and shrimp flee the liquid graveyard, but anything that can’t move out of its way, including coral, oysters, and clams dies. The result is a shocking gap in marine life for over 8,000 square miles (20,000 square kilometers). And with production of corn, a fertilizer-intensive crop, on the increase due to ethanol subsidies to farmers, the Dead Zone is only intensifying and growing with each passing year. 40 percent of Americas land drains out the mouth of the Mississippi.

This week, Alexandra Cousteau and the crew with Expedition Blue Planet finish their tale about the impact that the loss of wetlands has had on local communities.

New Orleans is sinking because the wetlands that naturally would form new land have been destroyed for the construction of navigation channels along the Mississippi River. But this is what many coastal areas will look like in 50 to 100 years if global climate change continues at its current rate: abandoned, hopeless, under water.

This week, Alexandra Cousteau and the crew with Expedition Blue Planet travel to Louisiana to investigate the impact that the loss of wetlands has had on the local communities.

New Orleans is sinking because the wetlands that naturally would form new land have been destroyed for the construction of navigation channels along the Mississippi River. But this is what many coastal areas will look like in 50 to 100 years if global climate change continues at its current rate: abandoned, hopeless, under water.

In Part 2, Alexandra Cousteau and her crew on Expedition Blue Planet continue their tale about the life of water along the Mississippi River. St Louis marks a dividing line in the Mississippi River. To the north, in Minnesota, it is a national treasure attracting more people for recreation than Yellowstone National Park. To the south, it is hardly a river anymore. It more closely resembles a drainage pipe.

As it journeys through the middle of America, the Mississippi suffers the bombardments of human civilization, deteriorating with each mile. Several factors contribute to its degradation. For one, the river becomes more and more polluted with run-off from the whopping 40 percent of US land that it drains: chemical fertilizers from agriculture, industrial toxins, as well as sewage and waste. By the time it reaches Louisiana, the water is so filthy that the government advises against eating the fish or swimming in the river.

But there is another reason why the Mississippi today is like two different rivers. At the northern reaches, it still flows virtually untamed, as it has since glaciers first formed it hundreds of thousands of years ago. Along the way, however, it becomes increasingly constrained by locks, dams, and levees constructed both to create agricultural land and to ensure a minimum nine foot-deep navigation channel for the barges that swim constantly back and forth with their cargo. In St Louis, the great river is 50 percent severed from its natural floodplains. South of St Louis, less than ten percent of the Mississippi River flows free.

This week Alexandra Cousteau and Expedition Blue Planet travel to St. Louis on the Mississippi River. The Mississippi watershed is the source of water for 18 million people. The river is a storybook. It tells not only the story of a nation, but of the people who share its water. It is a literal and metaphorical connector between states, accents, races, socioeconomic boundaries, career paths, ages, and values. We may have vastly different ideas of who we are in relation to nature and how we should manage our water resources in a philosophical or ideological sense, but from the purely ecological standpoint—as humans, beings who are part of nature, just as are the trees, the birds, the fish and the fast flowing river—we must honor our place in the world.

Join them at: AlexandraCousteau.org

Israel, Jordan, and Palestine share the same watershed, the Sea of Galilee, also known as Lake Tiberias. The Sea of Galilee is the primary source of water for all three countries and controlled by Israel.

Can water scarcity be transformed from a situation that foments warfare into an opportunity to bring people of different religions and conflicted histories together? We have seen evidence that this might be the case. But one thing is clear: we have no choice. Fresh water around the globe is running out. We have to cooperate to save it—and save our own lives.

The Sea of Galilee, also known as Lake Tiberias, is surrounded by Israel on all sides. It is also the primary water source for Israel, Jordan, and Palestine. Jordan is a country that is 80 percent covered in desert. With the fourth lowest amount of freshwater available of any country on Earth, Jordanians are intimately familiar with water scarcity.

Can water scarcity be transformed from a situation that foments warfare into an opportunity to bring people of different religions and conflicted histories together? We have seen evidence that this might be the case. But one thing is clear: we have no choice. Fresh water around the globe is running out. We have to cooperate to save it—and save our own lives.

In part 2, Expedition Blue Planet concludes the passionate tale of one institute that brings together different walks of life, against all odds.

Arava brings Israelis, Palestinians, and Jordanians together with students from around the world to study environmental issues. However, their not-so-subtle agenda is not just a sustainable future for natural resources, but also cooperation between the peoples of this conflict-ridden region. As such, they compliment rigorous academic coursework with a special one-year mandatory class on peace and leadership skills, in which they confront issues such as religion, stereotypes, and the historical narratives of each group head-on. Their motto is: “Nature knows no borders.” We are curious to explore their model for how water scarcity can serve not as a necessary cause of conflict, but rather as a vehicle for peace.

In a region where terrorist bombings make headlines every few weeks, barbed wire fences and concrete walls sever the landscape like scars, and soldiers poke their heads out from checkpoints every few dozen kilometers, water lies at the heart of peace and conflict.

Arava brings Israelis, Palestinians, and Jordanians together with students from around the world to study environmental issues. However, their not-so-subtle agenda is not just a sustainable future for natural resources, but also cooperation between the peoples of this conflict-ridden region. As such, they compliment rigorous academic coursework with a special one-year mandatory class on peace and leadership skills, in which they confront issues such as religion, stereotypes, and the historical narratives of each group head-on. Their motto is: “Nature knows no borders.” We are curious to explore their model for how water scarcity can serve not as a necessary cause of conflict, but rather as a vehicle for peace.