Adapt or perish?
This excellence water science and policy paper has a lot to say. It should be required reading for all New Mexico elected officials. The report’s discussion of the data it summarizes and presents begins with this contrast between the Colorado River Basin’s and the Rio Grande/Río Bravo Basin’s water security problems and policy-makers’ attention.
The water scarcity challenges within the RGB basin have received much less attention from media outlets and national policymakers as compared to the Colorado River Basin (CRB) in the American Southwest. This can largely be explained by the comparatively smaller volume of water it carries (natural flows of 11,225 MCM/yr or 9.1 million AF/ yr) in the RGB [25] vs. 18,996 MCM/yr (15.4 million AF/yr) in the CRB [26], as well as the smaller population it serves with drinking water (15 million in RGB vs. 40 million in CRB) and the area of irrigated farmland it supports (7,800 km2 in RGB vs. 22,300 km2 in CRB) [2]. However, the water crisis facing the RGB is arguably more severe and urgent than the CRB, as illustrated by these conditions.
Data collection and interpretation by the authors leads to this conclusion.
We estimate that only half (48%) of water directly consumed for anthropogenic purposes is supported by renewable replenishment; the other half (52%) has been unsustainable, meaning that it is causing depletion of reservoirs, aquifers, and river flows. The over-consumption of renewable water supplies is primarily due to irrigated agriculture, which accounts for 87% of direct water consumption in the basin.
And this opportunity.
This water crisis presents an opportunity for the residents of the RGB to envision a new, more sustainable water future. The ‘Multi-benefit Land Repurposing Program’ underway in the water-stressed Central Valley of California provides one example of productive community dialogue around possible future scenarios [42]. The “Exploratory Scenario Planning” approach being advanced by the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy in various communities in the western US similarly offers ways to engage local communities in planning for their water future [43]. Any transformational strategies will require careful and inclusive planning, provision of strong financial incentives for farming communities to facilitate needed changes, and a bold willingness of water management agencies and decision makers to ensure water and food security for the region. Alternate pathways toward a sustainable water future are available for the RGB basin, but time is of the essence in correcting the highly unsustainable conditions that presently exist.