Against the Tide | Women - Power - Water

In the American Southwest, the Colorado River is under pressure. Years of drought, rising temperatures, shrinking snowpack and growing demand have pushed the basin into a new reality: less water, more uncertainty, and harder questions about who gets access, who has power, and who gets to decide.

But for Indigenous nations, this crisis did not begin with climate change. Long before today’s shortages, access to water in the United States was shaped by treaties, federal policies, court decisions and water agreements that often excluded Indigenous nations from the table. Many Tribal Nations hold some of the strongest legal rights to water in the Colorado River Basin. And yet, on the Navajo Nation, many families still cannot simply turn on a tap at home.

In this episode of Against the Tide, Claire Stam speaks with Heather Tanana, a citizen of the Navajo Nation and a leading voice on Indigenous water issues, tribal water rights and clean water access.

From the Colorado River Basin to homes without piped water, Heather explains the stark gap between legal water rights and real water access. She speaks about water not only as a resource to use, divide or allocate, but as a relationship – tied to responsibility, community, future generations and the natural world.

This is also a story about leadership. Across the basin, Indigenous women are carrying knowledge, shaping law, organising communities and bringing a different lens to water governance – one rooted not only in consumption, but in relation, balance and protection.

For Heather, women are not just entering conversations about water. They are changing them.

Against the Tide is a podcast on gender, water and climate, hosted by Claire Stam and produced by Seden Anlar, with support from the Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung European Union | Global Dialogue Office.

In Kenya, droughts are becoming more frequent, rivers and boreholes are running low, and access to clean drinking water can no longer be taken for granted. For many women and girls, water scarcity is measured not only in litres or distance, but in hours spent walking, school days missed, bodies exhausted and opportunities lost.

In this episode of Against the Tide, Claire Stam speaks with Beth Koigi, co-founder and CEO of Majik Water, about what happens when the burden of water scarcity becomes the starting point for a new kind of solution.

Today, Majik Water reaches thousands of people and produces hundreds of thousands of litres of clean drinking water every month. But for Beth, the story is not only about technology. It is about bringing water closer to people, reducing the hours spent fetching it, and giving women and girls back time for school, work, safety and choice.

For Beth, women are not just living through the water crisis. They are problem-solvers: the ones responding to everyday challenges, organising locally, building trust and creating ripple effects far beyond their communities.

From her childhood in Kenya to her first direct experiences of drought and water scarcity in the country’s eastern region, Beth tells the story of how she began working with communities – first through simple water filtration, and later through Majik Water, a social enterprise harvesting drinking water from the air for schools, hospitals, refugee communities and drought-affected areas.

Against the Tide is a podcast on gender, water and climate, hosted by Claire Stam and produced by Seden Anlar, with support from the Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung European Union | Global Dialogue Office.

In Chile’s artisanal fishing communities, climate change is already reshaping life by the sea. Fish are moving, marine resources are disappearing, and the impacts are not felt equally: while men can often follow the catch, women are left to adapt on land – processing seafood, supporting households, rebuilding after disasters and keeping communities going. 

In this episode of Against the Tide, Claire Stam speaks with Sara Garrido Cortés, president of Chile’s National Network of Women in Fisheries, about how fisherwomen turned invisible labour into political power.

From Coliumo, in Chile’s Bíobio region, Sara tells the story of a women-led movement that organised across the country, pushed for three groundbreaking laws, and brought the demands of Chile’s fisherwomen from the shoreline to Parliament – and into international spaces such as FAO.

For Sara, women are not just living through the water crisis. They are agents of change: the ones who organise, rebuild, demand recognition and keep communities moving forward.

Against the Tide is a podcast on gender, water and climate, hosted by Claire Stam and produced by Seden Anlar, with support from Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung European Union | Global Dialogue Office.

More resources:
National Network of Women in Fisheries / Red de Mujeres del Mar
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