“There are 40 million people, seven states and 30 tribal territories who depend on the Colorado River Basin for basic services like drinking water and electricity,” Interior Secretary Deb Haaland said in a statement praising the agreement that ends decades of disputes.
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The initiative was promoted by the three states — California, Nevada (west) and Arizona (southwest) — in the lower part of the basin of this river, which crosses the American southwest.
With the agreement, the states agreed to voluntarily adopt measures to save 3,7 billion cubic meters of water by 2026.
Part of the reduction will be “offset by funds from the Reducing Inflation Act,” a major climate law passed last year in Washington, according to the statement.
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Democrat Joe Biden's government threatened to impose radical restrictions if negotiations remained stalled.
The announcement is “proof” of the government’s “commitment” to “finding consensual solutions to climate change and persistent drought,” Haaland added.
For Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs, the agreement is the result of “months of tireless work”.
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In a separate statement, he noted: “We now have a path to raising the level of our reservoirs in curto term. From there, our job is to continue taking action and addressing the long-term problem of climate change.”
“Significant cuts”
The Colorado River flows from the Rocky Mountains to the Gulf of California in northwestern (south) Mexico.
Last year, water levels in Lake Mead — the largest reservoir in the United States, in Nevada — reached their lowest level since the Hoover Dam was built, exposing hillsides that hadn't been seen since the 1930s. , the body of an alleged Las Vegas mob murder victim.
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As recently as 2022, federal authorities had asked the seven western states (along with Utah, Colorado, Wyoming and New Mexico) to reach an agreement to reduce consumption to a maximum of 40% of the river's flow.
The six states proposed that most of these restrictions be imposed on California, which had not accepted the plan and then presented a counterproposal suggesting that the cuts be made upstream of the river.
The system that has regulated the sharing of river water for more than a century favors farmers in California, the most populous state in the country.
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“California took the lead on the matter,” withpromehaving to make “significant cuts in water use”, said its governor, Gavin Newsom, on Monday. “The entire Western United States is on the front lines of climate change: we must work together to address this crisis.”
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