Politics Are Water Wars in the Near Future?

The numbers underlining the crisis are startling: In July, eight of Mexico’s 32 states were experiencing extreme to moderate drought, resulting in 1,546 of the country’s 2,463 municipalities confronting water shortages, according to the National Water Commission.

By mid-July, about 48 percent of Mexico’s territory was suffering drought, according to the commission, compared with about 28 percent of the country’s territory during the same period last year.
While tying a single drought to human-caused climate change requires analysis, scientists have no doubt that global warming can alter rainfall patterns around the world and is increasing the likelihood of droughts.
Across the border in recent years, most of the Western half of the United States has been in drought, with conditions ranging from moderate to severe.For the region, this period is now the driest two decades in 1,200 years.

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“Here you have to chase the water,” said Claudia Muñiz, 38, whose household is often without running water for up to a week. “In a moment of desperation, people explode,” she said about the violence that has flared as people fight over what water there is.

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The crisis is particularly acute in Monterrey, one of Mexico’s most important economic hubs and where the entire metropolitan area of about five million people is affected by drought, according to officials. Some neighborhoods in Monterrey have been without water for 75 days, leading many schools to close before the scheduled summer break.

The situation in the city has gotten so dire, a visiting journalist could not find any drinking water for sale at several stores, including a Walmart.
Buckets, too, are scarce at local stores — or being sold at astronomically high prices — as Monterrey’s residents scrape together containers to collect water supplied by government trucks sent to the driest neighborhoods. Some residents clean out trash cans to ferry water home, children struggling to help carry what can amount to 450 pounds of water.
While Monterrey’s poorest neighborhoods are the hardest hit, the crisis is affecting everyone, including the wealthy.

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About 40 million people rely on the Colorado River as it flows from Colorado to Mexico. But overuse and climate change have contributed to its reservoirs drying up at such a rapid rate that the probability of disastrous disruptions to the deliveries of water and hydroelectric power across the Southwest have become increasingly likely. Now the seven states that depend on the river must negotiate major cuts in water use by mid-August or have them imposed by the federal government.

Those cuts are merely the beginning as the region struggles to adapt to an increasingly arid West. The rules for operating the river’s shrinking reservoirs expire in 2026, and those seven states must forge a new agreement on water use for farmers, businesses and cities.

What’s worse, all of this is happening in a region that is one of the fastest growing in the United States, even as the signs of an impending crisis become more pronounced. Outside of Las Vegas, Lake Mead, the nation’s largest reservoir by volume, fed by the Colorado and three smaller tributaries, is nearly three-quarters empty and at its lowest level since April 1937, when it was first being filled. The 22-year downward trend is “a stark illustration of climate change and a long-term drought that may be the worst in the U.S. West in 12 centuries,” according to NASA’s Earth Observatory program.

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southernhybrid said:

Here's another gifted piece that explains the water shortages in the Western US, assuming anyone is interested.

nytimes.com/2022/08/04/opinion/drought-climate-colorado-river.html?unlocked_article_code=AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACEIPuomT1JKd6J17Vw1cRCfTTMQmqxCdw_PIxftm3iWka3DFDm4eiOMNAo6B_EGKabBketQzw3GQQN5EOaMiAfd1yuhFNkBqDhOpvJae3pQ

About 40 million people rely on the Colorado River as it flows from Colorado to Mexico. But overuse and climate change have contributed to its reservoirs drying up at such a rapid rate that the probability of disastrous disruptions to the deliveries of water and hydroelectric power across the Southwest have become increasingly likely. Now the seven states that depend on the river must negotiate major cuts in water use by mid-August or have them imposed by the federal government.

Those cuts are merely the beginning as the region struggles to adapt to an increasingly arid West. The rules for operating the river’s shrinking reservoirs expire in 2026, and those seven states must forge a new agreement on water use for farmers, businesses and cities.

What’s worse, all of this is happening in a region that is one of the fastest growing in the United States, even as the signs of an impending crisis become more pronounced. Outside of Las Vegas, Lake Mead, the nation’s largest reservoir by volume, fed by the Colorado and three smaller tributaries, is nearly three-quarters empty and at its lowest level since April 1937, when it was first being filled. The 22-year downward trend is “a stark illustration of climate change and a long-term drought that may be the worst in the U.S. West in 12 centuries,” according to NASA’s Earth Observatory program.

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Does anyone who lives in the Western US have any concerns about not having enough water, in the coming years?

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Elixir said:

My back yard last evening. This is a super dry hillside. We got almost 2” of rain in less than an hour. That water is flowing at dangerous speeds.
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Jimmy Higgins said:

Water will be available, they need to adjust their sources. Desalination and reclaimed wastewater will likely be two of the bigger ones. It'll cost money, but honestly, let's make one thing clear, the Government spent a fortune on water works projects in the SW to making living there possible for the last 80 or so years. Time is due for the next investment.

Personally, my favorite plan is the one from people who think it is hydraulically possible to send Mississippi River water to the SW.

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A clean and reliable water supply is critical to our nation’s future, but freshwater is a finite resource.

Through innovation, science and proven conservation practices, USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service is working to develop new tools and technologies to help farmers, ranchers and private forest landowners conserve and protect our natural resources, like our freshwater supply.

Water reuse has become a rapidly expanding tool in our conservation toolbox. It reclaims water from a variety of sources then treats it, allowing that water to be reused for agriculture and irrigation, potable water supplies, groundwater replenishment, industrial processes, and other uses. Water reuse can provide alternatives to tapping into precious water supplies, helping to enhance water security, sustainability and resilience.

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Desalination remains a "very expensive, very power hungry" process, according to Jacob Tompkins, managing director of Waterwise, an organisation focused on decreasing water consumption.
"We can always engineer water, we can build desalination plants all around the coast, but the cost and carbon impact would be huge."
Water is "heavy and incompressible, so if you start pumping it uphill, you pay lots of money", Green adds.
Even after the water has been purified there's the remaining challenge of what to do with the leftover salt.
"We'd have to get rid of all the salt, would it be dropped back into the sea?" Tompkins says.
The WWF also warns large-scale seawater desalination could endanger marine life and is calling for further research into the tolerance of marine organisms and ecosystems to higher-salinity and brine waste.

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southernhybrid said:

Almost every article I've read mentions that people who live in areas where water shortages are likely in the near future, need to reduce their own water consumption by at least 25%. Lawns need to be replaced for starters, as AA has already done.

We never have had to water our lawn but I know that those in the Western part of the country usually need to water the lawn to keep it from dying. No? I'd let my lawn die before I considered watering it. Would most people be willing to do that without being forced. One doesn't need to use artificial turf, as there are many plants that grow naturally in desert like conditions.

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Jimmy Higgins said:

It'll cost money, but honestly, let's make one thing clear, the Government spent a fortune on water works projects in the SW to making living there possible for the last 80 or so years. Time is due for the next investment.

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southernhybrid said:

https://www.usda.gov/media/blog/2020/04/28/uniting-combat-water-shortages-across-country

A clean and reliable water supply is critical to our nation’s future, but freshwater is a finite resource.

Through innovation, science and proven conservation practices, USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service is working to develop new tools and technologies to help farmers, ranchers and private forest landowners conserve and protect our natural resources, like our freshwater supply.

Water reuse has become a rapidly expanding tool in our conservation toolbox. It reclaims water from a variety of sources then treats it, allowing that water to be reused for agriculture and irrigation, potable water supplies, groundwater replenishment, industrial processes, and other uses. Water reuse can provide alternatives to tapping into precious water supplies, helping to enhance water security, sustainability and resilience.

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Water reuse sounds like a good idea, but is it being done yet anywhere? Does anyone know much about any plans for reusing water? I think I saw something about this a few years ago on a science tv show, but I don't think it's being done on a large scale, at least not yet.

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TSwizzle said:

We may have a shortage of water in SoCal right now but on the bright side, we do have a multi billion dollar high speed train that goes nowhere. Thanks governor Newsom.

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bilby said:

TSwizzle said:

We may have a shortage of water in SoCal right now but on the bright side, we do have a multi billion dollar high speed train that goes nowhere. Thanks governor Newsom.

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"Don't blame me, I only do everything possible to block spending on infrastructure!"



You fucking deserve the crapstorm you are about to endure. You are so blissfully unaware of your dependence on critical systems that you feel smugly gleeful at seeing them deteriorate, because it gives you an excuse to deride those who are desperately trying to save you from your own ignorance and arrogance.

If you were on the Titanic, you would be walking around with a sledgehammer, smashing holes in the lifeboats, to demonstrate to everyone how they wouldn't stand up to an iceberg either, and that they should therefore blame the White Star Line for their predicament.

You are not a part of the solution; You are a part of the problem. And you are proud of that fact, which makes you a serious danger to everyone around you.

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Oleg said:

Isn’t the problem in CA that those in authority are incompetent?

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