Colorado River

In the face of critical drought and new cuts to water use, Governor Stephen Roe Lewis talks longevity in the Colorado River water system.

Last Friday, the federal government put out a plan forcing some states to cut back on water from the Colorado River. By Monday, the state of Nevada filed a lawsuit describing the cuts as an unfair burden.

Nearly three-quarters of the water in the Colorado River system is used for irrigation.

Water supply in the Colorado River Basin is dwindling. Seven states in the area are debating how to divide up the remaining resources.

As federal spending on water infrastructure in the Colorado River basin dips under Trump, big companies like Procter & Gamble and Google are now making relatively small, targeted investments to fund that gap.

The two neighbors are bound by a 1944 water-sharing treaty. But much of northern Mexico is in the grip of severe drought, and the country has fallen well behind in its water deliveries.

Four Western states are paying farmers and ranchers tens of millions of dollars this year to conserve water as part of a short-term plan to save water from the Colorado River.

A whopping three quarters of the river’s water that is used by humans goes to irrigation for farms and livestock, according to the journal Communications Earth & Environment.

This proposal could save the river system from imminent collapse, but in 2026, the current drought management guidelines will expire.

Amid regional efforts to conserve the Colorado River’s flow, the U.S. government argues it has no duty to enforce Navajo water rights.