Southwest states have bought time with an agreement between California, Arizona and Nevada to cut Colorado River water use by about 14%. Now comes the hard part.
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Articles on Water conservation
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Two decades of drought have reduced the river’s flow by one-third compared to historical averages. The Biden administration is considering mandatory cuts to some states’ water allocations.
Even after January’s storms, California faces a water-scarce future. An economist and an engineer propose a way to test higher water prices as a conservation strategy without hurting low-income users.
As we set conservation goals for the next decade, we need to evaluate what worked and what didn’t in our efforts to meet the 2020 biodiversity conservation targets.
While we know how global changes in freshwater pose risks to humans and ecosystems, we know less about how people and ecosystems will respond to these global freshwater challenges.
As droughts intensify, how can we increase crop production in a sustainable way? This is a multidimensional scientific and societal challenge to ensure future food security.
Nearly 97% of the world’s water is in the oceans, but desalination is no magic bullet for water-stressed coastal cities.
Rationing water at home will benefit moisture-starved ecosystems.
Sandfish keep the rivers clean and the food web balanced but their numbers are declining. Farmers are helping to lift these numbers.
Covering the state’s canals with solar panels would reduce evaporation of precious water and help meet renewable energy goals – all while saving money.
A long-expected federal drought declaration underlines how serious the Colorado River water shortage has become for Western states.
The US has one of the highest groundwater use rates in the world. When wells run dry, households may opt to conserve water, find new sources or sell and move.
The Supreme Court recently dealt defeat to Florida in its 20-year legal battle with Georgia over river water. Other interstate water contests loom, but there are no sure winners in these lawsuits.
Given long-term forecasts for growing urban populations and an increasingly variable climate, local authorities will have to think about how best to encourage people to conserve water.
An invisible crisis is brewing in US farm country as the overpumped Ogallala-High Plains Aquifer drains. The key drivers are federal farm subsidies and the tax code.
The Trump administration is rolling back a regulation that requires showerheads to conserve water, which saved owners an average of US$70 and nearly 3,000 gallons of water yearly per showerhead.
The prices households pay for drinking water and wastewater services have been rising faster than the rate of inflation.
With partnerships between landowners, the government and businesses, South Africa can invest in its wetlands and boost the country’s potable water reserves.
Cities relied entirely on conserving and recycling water to get through the last big drought. We now have desalination plants, but getting the most out of our water reserves still makes sense.
While making small volumes of pure water in a lab is possible, it’s not practical. The reaction is expensive, releases lots of energy, and can cause really massive explosions.
Top contributors
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Regents Professor Emeritus and Morris K. Udall Professor of Law & Public Policy Emeritus, University of Arizona
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Associate Professor in Environmental Science, Western Sydney University
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Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Global Change Institute, University of the Witwatersrand
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Senior Research Scientist, Colorado Water Institute, Colorado State University
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Director, Institute for Sustainable Futures, University of Technology Sydney
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Samual A. Graham Dean, and William B. Stapp Collegiate Professor of Environmental Education, School for Environment and Sustainability, University of Michigan
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Public policy advice, Australian National University
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Senior Lecturer in History, Australian Catholic University
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Research Director, Institute for Sustainable Futures, University of Technology Sydney
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Professor of Political Economy at the Department of Geography and Fellow of Fitzwilliam College., University of Cambridge
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Professor of Conservation Science, Bangor University
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Director of Sustainability, University of California, Riverside
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Honorary Associate Professor, Australian National University
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Honorary Fellow, Infrastructure Engineering, The University of Melbourne
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Gates Cambridge Scholar, PhD, Affiliated Research Scholar at the University of Cambridge Conservation Research Institute, University of Cambridge
