Water security doesn’t exist for many in Arizona. Here’s how to get it
The past year has shown Arizonans how critical water is to all we hold dear. It’s a pillar of public health, a precious and finite resource, and the lifeblood of our economy and food production.
Water is essential for life, and climate change is shrinking already scarce supplies. Fortunately, we also know what we can do now to help safeguard our water.
As we build back better post-COVID-19, we cannot take water for granted. Water security for all must become a foundational principle in planning and policy making as Arizona builds more resilient, healthy and equitable communities.
Here’s how to get started.
Plan for Colorado River reductions
The Colorado River provides Arizona with more than one-third of our water supply and it’s ground zero for climate change. Within a generation, reliable annual Colorado River flows could provide 40% less water than is legally allocated each year.
The approval of water use reductions in the Drought Contingency Plan by Congress and seven states, including Arizona, marked a welcome shift away from the old mindset of “limitless water supply.” It’s past time we retire this mindset entirely and learn to live within our true water limits.
Water security requires planning for additional, significant Colorado River use reductions across the Colorado River Basin, and these conversations are beginning.
Allow rural groundwater management
Forty years after the Groundwater Management Act, we must also redouble water planning that recognizes limits for groundwater.
Groundwater management is essential if Arizona is to thrive. Groundwater supplies 40% of Arizona’s annual water use, yet it is often overlooked and remains essentially unregulated in most of rural Arizona, threatening places from Willcox to the Grand Canyon.
Forward-looking groundwater management is essential to ensure our security. And it’s best accomplished with local input based on local needs, with sufficient state support.
Despite calls for change from rural communities and some legislators, the Legislature has blocked proposals to enable communities to take control of their water future. Absent state action, many communities are stuck with “whoever drills the deepest well wins.”
Don’t just shore up the most secure areas
Throughout the 20th century, the prevailing assumption was there would always be new water sources to tap. That mindset continues, informed by mythology rather than reality, distracting from the urgent need to protect the resources we do have.
Water security varies greatly, especially across rural areas where some residents are seeing drinking water wells go dry. Some sovereign Native American tribes still lack sufficient water infrastructure. This stems from having long been excluded from water decision-making and funding, and the exploitation of their lands, often for the economic benefit of others.
Too often, thinking “big” on infrastructure still means increasing supplies for expansion in areas that already have water. Instead, infrastructure should build adaptiveness, prioritizing basic needs first.
We need new voices, hard conversations
Adapting to our new water reality means addressing root causes of vulnerability. We must include all communities as well as the environment in planning for the road ahead.
Climate scientist Dr. Katharine Hayhoe describes climate change as a sharp turn in the road ahead. If we keep our eyes on the rearview mirror, utilizing solutions of the past, we’ll veer off course.
Instead, we must look forward and follow a new course, which requires creativity, hard conversations and inclusive deliberation.
New water challenges require new thinking, and Arizona’s greatest strength lies in its diversity. If we work together with our inclusive strength, we can build back better and ensure water security for all.
Chris Kuzdas is a freshwater program manager and scientist with Environmental Defense Fund and Haley Paul is policy director for the National Audubon Society in Arizona. The organizations are members of the Water for Arizona coalition. On Twitter: @DrKuzMan, @haleyepaul.
