“This is when we’re supposed to be gaining and accumulating water in the form of snowpack, and that’s not happening,” Selover said.Ĭonditions have been deteriorating across the river basin since the summer of 2020. If it’s dry there, that means many more problems as the water flows downstream. Nancy Selover, Arizona’s state climatologist, says the Upper Basin figure is concerning because that accounts for the river’s headwaters. Two Mexican states also receive Colorado River water. The basin is made up of portions of Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada and California. 84% of the Upper Colorado River watershed is currently experiencing extreme to exceptional drought conditions, the highest percentage since 2002. The Lower Basin fares worse, with 93% of the land area in those categories. This is the highest percentage of land in the river’s Upper Basin since 2002, which stands as the region’s driest year on record. 84% Of Upper Basin In Extreme To Exceptional Drought Invest in quality science journalism by making a donation to Science Friday.ĭonate 1. We called several of them and asked for discrete numbers that capture the current state of the Colorado River basin. Understanding and explaining the depth of the dryness is up to climate scientists throughout the basin. This story was reported by Luke Runyon on KUNC.ĭry conditions are the worst they’ve been in almost 20 years across the Colorado River watershed, which acts as the drinking and irrigation water supply for 40 million people in the American Southwest.Īs the latest round of federal forecasts for the river’s flow shows, it’s plausible, maybe even likely, that the situation could get much worse this year. This segment is part of The State of Science, a series featuring science stories from public radio stations across the United States. “Diarrhoea, chicken pox, measles, typhoid fever, and cholera are currently spreading across Iraq because of the water crisis, and the government no longer provides vaccines to its citizens,” Naseer Baqar, climate activist and field coordinator at Tigris River Protectors Association in Iraq, told the BMJ.Lake Mead is currently projected to be at its lowest level since filling within the next year, possibly triggering the first federal shortage declaration on the river that supplies water to 40 million across seven U.S. A recent report published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) investigated how a myriad of health emergencies are building in Iraq because people are struggling to get their hands on clean water. Parched for water, these countries could also be facing a looming public health crisis. These arguments have also prevented governments from effectively reaching any solution to the problem. As the rivers start to struggle, international disputes over access to water are already heating up. Millions of people across Turkey, Syria, and Iraq rely on the Tigris-Euphrates for water. The strain is already starting to show, but a total collapse of the river system would spell disaster for the region. Meanwhile, demand for freshwater continues to rise, and the region does not coordinate its water management because of different interpretations of international laws," explained Famiglietti. "The rate was especially striking after the 2007 drought.
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