Where the Colorado River crisis is hitting home
NPR Online NewsAPR 2022
The current state of the Colorado river can't support the 40M people across seven states that depend on it for their livelihoods, and abandoning the system to investors and private greed will only make it worse. Water shouldn't be a good that's sold to the highest bidder — the government must step up and shut down the high-handed movers and shakers of Wall Street.
There's a misconception about the amount of water that's available in the Western sector of the US. There's not yet a water shortage; it's just not located in the areas that need it the most — largely due to an outdated regulating system that can't keep up with the region's changing landscape. While certainly flawed, a market-based approach — that discourages waste and promotes innovation — would make considerable strides in redrawing the water distribution map and solving this crisis.