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 n the Orinoco, water connects everything: ecology, human space, development and transformation. To understand the river, scientists study the physical and chemical makeup of the river. They carefully observe and measure its climate, elevation, erosion, drainage and even the water color.
The most essential feature of the river is the water cycle. As the sun warms the surface of the Orinoco, water evaporates. The warm water vapor rises to form clouds. As these clouds grow and cool, they form rain or snow, which in turn falls on rivers, seas and oceans. With each passing day the cycle is renewed; but contamination of the water threatens to interrupt this cycle.
 In geologic time, the Orinoco river basin began to develop over three billion years ago on one of the world's oldest rock formations. Over millions of years, sedimentary soil was deposited on the rock to build the Colombian and Venezuelan geology we know today. The growth of the Andes and Coast Ranges displaced the ancient river currents. Over time, the mouth of the Orinoco moved from west to east. The early Orinoco River first emptied into the Caribbean near Maracaibo, then at Flacón, later at Unare and finally into the Atlantic near San José.
In recent times, the human capacity for destruction has accelerated. Fifteen thousand years ago the first humans arrived. The last 500 years, the last 100 years, and the last 30 years each signaled stages of greater and greater environmental damage, threatening the natural systems that evolved over the previous three billion years. Serious challenges like industrial contamination, strip mining, contaminated runoff and dams have all occurred without considering the ecological dynamics of the water and soil. Hydrologists, ecologists, historians and anthropologists offer a variety of perspectives that might help us understand these problems and allow the natural Orinoco to prosper again one day.
Meanwhile, these specialists must listen to the voices of the area's inhabitants, so that together they can approach a way to coexist with the waters of the river. To construct a complete image of the Orinoco, through multiple perspectives, is a process as diverse and unique as the river itself.
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