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The states of Arizona, California and Nevada reached a historic agreement to reduce water consumption from the Colorado River, threatened by the intense droughts of the last two decades and the climate crisis. Although it is a “temporary” solution, negotiations dragged on for almost a year.
A temporary patch, but unpublished. The states of Arizona, Nevada and California reached an agreement to reduce the consumption of water from the Colorado Riverthus protecting the communities that depend on it, when the great droughts of the last two decades and the climate crisis are hitting hard the water reserves of the reservoirs fed by the river.
According to experts, the Colorado has been in a state of “almost continuous” drought for the past 23 years: “With the two main reservoirs, the two largest in the country, near what is known as ‘dead well,’ there is no you can get more water,” explained Felicia Marcus, a water researcher at Stanford University. The flow of the Colorado River was reduced by 20% due to droughts in recent yearsaccording to data from the US Department of the Interior.
The “interim” agreement comes after nearly 12 months of heated debate and negotiations over an overdrafted river on which thousands of farmers and communities depend and amid a burgeoning water crisis in the western United States.
The three states of the “lower basin” pledged to reduce the consumption of river water by 3,700 cubic meters by 2026.half of the cut will be given by the end of 2024.
“It’s just a stopgap for the next few years to buy time for a more thoughtful reassessment of how we manage the river,” Marcus said.
Saving the Colorado River from the climate crisis
The famous river runs more than 2,300 kilometers from the mountains of Colorado to Baja California, Mexico, supplying water and hydroelectric power to more than 40 million people and thirty Native American tribes. “I think everyone is going to feel these cuts. What I can’t talk about is the allocation of those cuts. But I can say that agriculture is the biggest user and will probably bear, gallon for gallon, the biggest cuts,” Bret Birdsong said. , professor of law at the University of Nevada.
In exchange for this significant temporary reduction in water spending, 13% less in the next three years, the Joe Biden government will compensate cities, tribes, and districts of the three states if they really reduce their consumption. US Office of Recovery Commissioner Camille Touton called the pact a “significant step forward” that will prevent future forced cuts.
For his part, President Biden celebrated the agreement by noting that record resources are being used to improve the long-term sustainability of the Colorado River. “It is fundamental to building a resilient future for states, tribes and communities across the West,” the president declared after the agreement was made official.
The Biden Administration had already given an ultimatum to the seven states through which the river’s waters flow – Arizona, California, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Wyoming and New Mexico – to reduce consumption by between 2,500 and 5,000 million cubic meters. of the water from this vital source. Otherwise, the Executive would intervene with fines.
The Executive will respond with financial aid
This agreement is not new; federal and state river basin agencies have previously tried to pay farmers to reduce water use, but the compensation measures were not always enough. This water is used to irrigate the crops that supply vegetables and fruits to the populations during the winter.
Other water sources in the country have seen their levels drop to critical lows, such as Lake Powell and Lake Mead, which is why the authorities of these three states, together with the federal Executive, are trying to find a solution that alleviates the consequences of the climate crisis before reaching a catastrophic situation.
“ANDThis agreement will allow them to convert some of that water to what we call system conservation, which is water that theoretically stays permanently in the system and no longer belongs to those water users,” Sarah Porter, director of the Kyl Center for Water Conservation, told Reuters. Water Policy from the University of Arizona.
Scientists have been warning that the increase in global temperatures is decreasing the flow of rivers. For each additional degree Celsius, they estimate that the river’s flow will decrease by 9% of its capacity.
“With climate change, we know we’re likely to have more frequent and drier droughts over the decades, which means we’re more likely to see these types of scenarios. So we have to reorganize how we view the river. in a more realistic way considering the times,” said Marcus.
The pact runs until 2026, but the climate emergency is advancing faster than expected, which is why the researcher wonders: “Will it be enough? Only time will tell. We’ll have to see if we get another year of very poor runoff. The agreement itself acknowledges that it could be in that danger zone again.”
With Reuters and AP
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