There is a danger that Lake Mead, a large reservoir on the Colorado River that is a major source of water for 22 million humans of the southwest USA, may go dry. According to a new study, there is
- A 10 percent chance that Lake Mead could be dry by 2014 if warming continues and water use is not curtailed.
- A 50 percent chance that reservoir levels will drop too low to allow hydroelectric power generation by 2017.
- 50 percent chance that Lake Mead will go dry by 2021 if warming continues and water use is not curtailed.
The experts estimated that the Colorado River system which feeds Lake Mead and Lake Powell, is seeing a net deficit of nearly 1 million acre-feet of water per year - an amount that can supply some 8 million people. That water is not being replenished, they noted, and human demand, evaporation and human-induced climate change are fueling the growing deficit.
Lake Mead is already at half capacity because of a eight years of drought.
So my question is- why is it that you can still have a backyard swimming pool anywhere in this region? Where is the effort to head off the disaster by reducing water use now?
The study has been accepted for publication, possibly next month, in the peer-reviewed Water Resources Research, a journal of the American Geophysical Union. The Study was conducted by Tim Barnett and David Pierce of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography.
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Comments: 8
That is the same question I had when I spent a year living in Las Vegas. Even more than the swimming pools, I was amazed at the vast amounts of water that were used in fountains and such everywhere.. Though I'm sure all the hotels, casinos and parks receycled the water flowing through all their fountains and water features, I still found it mind boggling that people living in the middle of a desert could waste that much water.