This morning I woke up to find out that the US federal government has announced that Nevada, Arizona and Mexico have to lower their intake of water from the Colorado river basin by 25%, starting not now but in January. Seriously?
If I sound really doubtful about all of this is because the US Government has done fuck all to prevent this region from becoming uninhabitable very soon. Is there anything that they could do now to prevent the upcoming disaster? Not really, because they allowed all of the farming and building of subdivisions in a desert to happen in the first place. There should have been limits to the uncontrolled growth that has been happening in the American Southwest for decades now. All of this is way too little way too late to make any kind of meaningful difference.
The thing about this which really pisses me of the most about this inaction is that they want to wait till January. Seriously? What the hell do they think is going to happen between now and January? More rain?
What do I think needs to be done right now to confront this?
- No new housing subdivisions or businesses allowed to be built in the states that are affected. Period.
- Lawns and non native plant gardens are not allowed to be watered. This includes private residences, businesses, golf courses, cemeteries, parks and other such places.
- Man made decorative lakes in subdivisions should be allowed to dry up and not be allowed to take water from the Colorado to be filled.
- Farms in the desert should be ploughed under and not allowed to exist.
- Any citizen or business that goes against any of this should be very heavily fined. I am talking hundreds of thousands of dollars, an amount that will make people think twice.
If you live in this region you should look to getting out sooner rather than later because pretty soon this entire area is going to be uninhabitable. No ‘thoughts and prayers’ are going to change this.
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