One of the most important issues in recent years for this region is related to water scarcity along the Colorado River basin, especially in the states of California, Nevada, Arizona and Baja California, which includes the San Luis Rio Colorado region, Sonora.
What began at the end of the last century as a situation of scarce rainfall in the first years of the new century became a drought and from 2013 to date this has become a mega-drought. According to experts, a similar situation had not occurred in this region for more than 1,200 years.
The accelerated population growth of this region has brought as a consequence that the waters of the Colorado River are used drop by drop, taking into account that it is the only source of safe water. However, the mega-drought has forced authorities, researchers, and scientific and academic organizations to take extreme measures to make better use of water.
On February 13, a meeting of the International Boundary and Water Commission was held in which the crisis situation of the Colorado basin was exposed: Lakes Powell and Mead, key reservoirs for the operation of the System, are to 23 and 29% of its storage capacity, respectively. Likewise, Lake Powell continues to register historical lows and it is anticipated that it will continue to do so until the melting begins next spring, which, despite the fact that it currently has a snow cover with 30% above average, runoff is forecast to that are generated are not proportional considering the behavior of recent years.
The problem of scarcity of surface water has also brought as a consequence that groundwater is increasingly scarce by registering an overexploitation of aquifers, especially for agricultural production.
At last week’s CILA meeting, it was agreed that meetings will be held to jointly explore specific actions to address this situation to ensure minimum water supplies that depend on the waters of the Colorado River. In the same way, working groups will be formed with academic institutions, civil organizations and user representatives to review current and future hydrological conditions and to discuss the measures that both governments could consider within the emerging agreements that are expected to be reached in the next few months.
It is expected that the definitive measures can be announced next July, which would apply for the years 2024, 2025 and 2026.
It should be noted that of all the states that are fed by the waters of the Colorado River, Baja California is the one that presents the greatest problem by virtue of being in what was the Colorado delta and depends on scheduled deliveries through the Morelos dam. . From what is warned of the serious situation, now we only need to know in detail the measures that the authorities that operate the water in Baja California will implement to guarantee a sufficient supply for citizens, agriculture and the rest of the productive sectors. So far they have only been palliative.
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