Pat Mulroy is the senior fellow for Climate Adaptation and Environmental Policy at University of Nevada, Las Vegas' Brookings Mountain West and the former general manager of the Southern Nevada Water Authority.

The Colorado River, which supports nearly 40 million people and seven states that cumulatively represent the world’s fifth-largest economy, is facing a slow-motion natural disaster. For nearly 15 years, an unprecedented drought has gripped the region, reducing the river system’s storage by approximately 9 trillion gallons — the equivalent of the Hudson River running dry for nearly two years.

Continued cooperation on sharing agreements between the states and with Mexico is essential.

The impacts of the drought are already being felt, as communities along the river are being compelled to invest billions of dollars in water infrastructure and resources. A long-term prognosis developed by the federal Bureau of Reclamation points to an even more challenging future in which the projected gap between supply and demand could exceed a trillion gallons a year by 2060.



Under dire circumstances, there is a natural tendency toward conflict. However, citizens of the Colorado River have demonstrated that there is another path: one that emphasizes cooperation over conflict and embraces the concept of shared risk and sacrifice.



There is no “silver-bullet” solution, after all.



Although population growth in the urban centers along the Colorado has been substantial, the cities still collectively use less than one-sixth of the river’s annual flows, having implemented dramatic conservation measures. On the other hand, while the region’s agricultural centers consume the lion’s share of the Colorado River — accounting for approximately 75 percent of its water — the idea of solving the drought on the backs of farmers is equally unrealistic. Just the farms in the southwestern portion of the river account for a significant percentage of our nation’s winter fruits and vegetables and are major exporters into Asia; divesting them of water would affect the nation’s food supply chain.



It seems only fitting that the solutions on a river apportioned through consensus should be reached by the same process. Since the drought began, the states, in partnership with Mexico and the United States government, have achieved a number of unprecedented agreements. These include jointly funded infrastructure projects such as California’s Brock Reservoir, which saves an estimated 22 billion gallons of water annually, and new agreements between the U.S and Mexico, most notably Minute 319 to the Treaty of 1944 in which the hardships and the benefits are shared, simultaneously creating a bilateral pathway for river delta enhancement.



Along the way, many of the river’s users have repeatedly set aside their self-interest in favor of initiatives that benefit the entire river community. By moving away from the "use it or lose it" mentality of the 20th century and recognizing that no one has the luxury of protracted litigation over who gets what, the citizens of this basin are navigating to a more sustainable future.



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