It’s been 15 years since volunteers first placed the 65-gallon water barrels in the desert to prevent illegal immigrants from dying, and the story is not over, the founder of Humane Borders said.
“Deaths are higher in the west desert now than in previous years,” Robin Hoover said Monday. Behind him was one of the first 65-gallon blue barrels used at Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument.
The preserved water station will be on display at the Cooper-Hewitt Design Museum in New York City, said Hoover, who is no longer with Humane Borders.
Since 2001, Humane Borders has dispensed more than 100,000 gallons of water, according to its website, and operates 35 water stations in Southern Arizona. All the barrels are fitted with spigots and placed on steel stands and marked by a blue flag 30-feet high with the word “agua” on the side.
Humane Borders has permits and agreements to place and maintain the stations with several government agencies, including the National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management, Pima County and the city of Tucson, as well as private property owners near the border.
There are others groups such as Samaritans and No More Deaths that also distribute water in known crossing routes used by illegal immigrants.
The barrels have saved countless of lives, said Pima County Supervisor Richard Elías during the news conference in El Tiradito Shrine, “and if we want to be crass about it, we can also start counting how much money we’ve saved.”
But it’s an effort that needs to continue, he said, and called for more water stations along known crossing routes.
More than 2,500 remains have been recovered in this area since 2001 and the rate of those dying has not decreased despite fewer apprehensions in the Border Patrol Tucson Sector.
The goal from the beginning was to teach public entities how to do this job, Hoover said. “I would like to see federal land managers distributing water,” to help prevent more migrant deaths.
