If you don’t want to hear, you have to feel: Despite many warnings in recent years, the regions on the Colorado River are not reducing their water consumption to a sufficient extent. Now Arizona, Nevada and Mexico have to make do with less river water – Washington is significantly restricting the allocation.
To protect the Colorado River in the USA, several states and Mexico have had to accept cuts in the water supply. The US government said regions dependent on the river’s waters had failed to sufficiently reduce their needs, despite years of warnings. That’s why Washington will cut the water allocation.
The Colorado River is the lifeline of the western United States. After more than two decades of well below average rainfall, the river has reached a critical level. To avoid a “catastrophic collapse” of the river system and “a future of uncertainty and conflict,” water use in the river basin must be reduced, said Tanya Trujillo of the Federal Water Resources Agency.
Arizona’s allotment from the river will drop 21 percent in 2023, according to Washington data. Nevada receives eight percent less. Mexico’s share is to be reduced by seven percent. The most populous western state, California, is the largest user of water from the Colorado River but will not be affected by cuts in the coming year.
In view of the prolonged drought in the western United States, California recently presented a plan to secure the water supply. The package of measures presented by Governor Gavin Newsom on August 11 includes more above-ground water storage, better rainwater harvesting, better water treatment and more seawater desalination. “Climate change means we won’t be dealing with just two-year droughts like we have historically,” Newsom said. Rather, droughts would become a permanent condition in the western United States. “California will adjust to this new reality.”
The Colorado River supplies tens of millions of people and countless farmland. It rises in the Rocky Mountains and meanders through Colorado, Utah, Arizona, Nevada, California and northern Mexico, where it empties into the Gulf of California. It is mainly fed by the snow cover in the high altitudes, which slowly melts in the warmer months. However, the reduced precipitation and higher temperatures resulting from climate change mean that less snow falls.
