Al Jazeera wins Amnesty International award for Colorado River reporting

Journalists Megan O’Toole and Jillian Kestler-D’Amours win award for report on Indigenous fight for water rights in US.

Al Jazeera English online has been awarded a top prize at the 29th annual Amnesty International Canada Media Awards for a report on the Indigenous struggle for water rights in the southwestern United States.

Amnesty International Canada announced on Thursday that Al Jazeera’s long-form interactive feature Crisis on the Colorado: The Indigenous fight for water rights won the 2023-2024 mixed media award.

The awards “honour excellence in human rights reporting by Canada-based journalists and by Canadian journalists reporting abroad”.

Published in April 2023, Crisis on the Colorado explored how Indigenous communities that rely on the sprawling Colorado River have asserted their water rights in the face of record drought worsened by climate change.

The push comes as authorities at all levels have been forced to consider water cuts as they try to stave off the collapse of the river, a 2,330km (1,450-mile) span that starts in the US state of Colorado and ends in Mexico, and supplies water to more than 40 million people.

To tell the story, Al Jazeera journalists Megan O’Toole and Jillian Kestler-D’Amours met with Indigenous leaders in Colorado, Arizona and California, and travelled by car, boat and small plane to key points along the river, including Lake Powell and Lake Mead.

Their report combined a rich, written narrative with photography, videos, maps, charts and other interactive elements.

Across the region, Indigenous community leaders demanded a seat at the table – and insisted that their water rights must be protected after generations of neglect and exclusion.

“We have to look at a different way of how we respect the river, how we treat the river, and we’ve got to look out for the future generations,” Nora McDowell, the former longtime chairwoman of the Fort Mojave Indian Tribe, told Al Jazeera.

“We have to protect it.”

On Thursday, Amnesty International Canada congratulated Al Jazeera English and the other award-winners for their work profiling “people and communities who have shown remarkable courage and perseverance in the face of adversity”.

“We congratulate the winners on their remarkable achievements and thank the rights holders who shared their stories for bravely speaking truth to power through the press,” said Ketty Nivyabandi, secretary general of Amnesty International Canada’s English-speaking section.

Crisis on the Colorado was supported by The Water Desk, an independent journalism initiative based at the University of Colorado Boulder’s Center for Environmental Journalism.

Aerial footage used in the long-form feature was made possible through LightHawk donated flights.