A report issued by the National Research Council warns the Southwest will soon face a severe water shortage due to the regional warming trend and increased human demand. The Colorado River, which supplies parts of California, Arizona, Nevada, Wyoming, Utah, Colorado and New Mexico, is already significantly impacted—it no longer reaches the ocean! According to an article in SFGate.com, major water scarcity in the region will set in as soon as 2025.
The depletion of fresh water is of grave concern because it is not a renewable resource and there are no alternatives for it, unlike natural gas and coal. The report says, “increasingly costly, controversial and unavoidable trade-off choices,” will need to be made.
Currently, cities rising demand for water is being met by leasing and selling the water rights of agriculture, which accounts for 80% of the West’s water consumption. However, this is not a viable long-term solution because the farming industry and rural landscape will suffer. Ultimately, answers to the Southwest’s water shortage crisis will lie in conservation measures taken by the federal and state governments and the American people.
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