A Global River Guardian Has Passed

Jackie King sharing her river knowledge in Costa Rica. Photo by Melissa Sevigny

The writer Barry Lopez once pondered whether the gravels of his home stream in Oregon became lonely when the salmon were away.

I know for certain that Nyaminyami — the mythical river serpent alive in the tribal belief systems of southern Africa — is lonely from the passing of river guardian Jackie King.

In her duality as river scientist and humanitarian, Jackie fought tirelessly for four decades to protect and restore the rivers that support both freshwater biodiversity and human well-being around the globe. As Sandra Postel and I chronicled in our book “Rivers for Life,” Jackie was an important thought leader in the formulation of South Africa’s National Water Act, enacted shortly after Nelson Mandela rose to presidency. The Act was revolutionary in its recognition of the fundamental connection between people and rivers, calling for the establishment of a “Reserve” in each of the country’s rivers to protect “…the quantity, quality, and reliability of water required to maintain the ecological functions on which humans depend shall be reserved so that the human use of water does not individually or cumulatively compromise the long term sustainability of aquatic and associated ecosystems.”

In Jackie’s words: “The overall health of the living river was a crucial aspect for us because of the role that rivers play in our peoples’ lives.” 

Jackie’s work eventually took her to more than 20 countries, where she shared her deep knowledge of how rivers function while at the same time learning from local communities about their dependence on the bounty of rivers. In 2019, Jackie was awarded the Stockholm Water Prize, regarded as the equivalent of a Nobel Prize for water.

I first met Jackie in 2001 at the first International Symposium on Environmental Flows, convened in Cape Town. I will always remember going for a long walk with Jackie, during which I asked her what I could do to help advance the global imperative for protecting environmental flows. She didn’t hesitate: “First pay attention to your own rivers.”

What Jackie meant with that suggestion was that the science and policy for river protection in the US was stuck in an outdated perspective and in need of a substantial upgrade; at that time, the prevalent focus of river conservation efforts in the US was to protect a “minimum instream flow.”  Jackie’s breakthrough work in South Africa had convincingly argued that rivers need a lot more than a trickle of water, they need some semblance of a full natural flow regime including not just seasonal low flows but also small freshets and even large floods. Jackie’s thought leadership and the analytical methods she developed soon infused discussions about river protection around the globe, and I’m happy to say that the words “minimum instream flow” are no longer uttered in the US!

There are literally hundreds of river scientists and policy makers around the world that have cherished Jackie’s kind and generous mentorship. Her principles for life are pertinent universally:

“Follow your dreams and if you are lucky you will end up being paid to do what you love. In your work, reach beyond your grasp, and soon what you reach for will become normal and easy. Then reach again and again. Just keep going. Failure is not trying, rather than not succeeding.” 

We all grieve with Nyaminyami and all the communities of river life around the globe, but we are incredibly blessed to have been touched by Jackie’s work and her glowing spirit.

I would love for you to share your own stories of Jackie by entering a comment below. You’ll be able to see what others have written at my website