This book takes readers on a journey through the history of water in the Coahuila desert. It starts by describing the beauty and mysteries of the landscape, and then explores the rock art of the original desert cultures in Coahuila, offering readers a glimpse of the sacred nature of water in the desert, as well as the rituals surrounding it. Moving on to the colonial times and the post- independence development of the region, it discusses early water management, and explores how water is managed in modern times, as well as the legal complications of the law, and how these faulty laws, designed for less arid regions, have affected a highly diverse wetland, the Cuatro Ciénegas oasis. The book then examines the biological consequences of the water loss for the aquatic plants and animals in Churince – a now extinct system within Cuatro Ciénegas. Further, it addresses how even bacteria can become extinct in this hyper-diverse microbial oasis. Lastly, after this despair and sense of loss, the book provides hope, offering suggestions for how we can transform the future, from a social and educational point of view as well as through good science and changes in policy.

​María del Carmen Mandujano studied Biology at the Metropolitan Autonomous University (UAM), and obtained her PhD from the National Autonomous University (UNAM), prior to completing her postdoctoral studies at New Mexico State University. She is currently a researcher at UNAM’s Ecology Institute, where she has been studying various ecological aspects of cacti in Cuatro Ciénegas and Mapimí, in the Chihuahuan Desert, and more recently in the drylands of Querétaro. She has made important contributions to the demography, life history and floral biology of desert plants, especially in cacti. She is the editor of Revista Cactáceas y Suculentas Mexicanas. Irene Pisanty studied Biology at the School of Sciences (Facultad de Ciencias) of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), where she also obtained her Master’s degree in Ecology and Environmental Sciences. She is currently an Associate Professor at the same School of Sciences, where she teaches on ecology, population ecology, natural resources and life histories. She is also interested in the implementation of environmental policies based on sound scientific knowledge and worked as a project manager for Ecosystem Conservation at the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (1995-1998), and as a senior advisor to the president of the National Institute of Ecology (INE) (2001-2007). She is currently exploring the responses of soils and plants to water overexploitation and the disturbances it is producing in the Basin, as well as the functional responses of plants in gypsum environments.