At least in the case of Arizonan desert alfalfa, this is a result of sweetheart lease deals offered to Saudis with no limits on groundwater access, who are effectively exporting Arizona’s aquifers in the form of livestock feed.
This is just saying that they had the right to drill MORE wells revoked, presumably they already have wells that will continue to pump water out of the ground.
>reported that the new wells would have pumped up to 3,000 gallons (11,000 liters) of water per minute.
> At Lake Itasca, the average flow rate is 6 cubic feet per second. At Upper St. Anthony Falls in Minneapolis, the northern most Lock and Dam, the average flow rate is 12,000 cubic feet per second or 89,869 gallons per second. At New Orleans, the average flow rate is 600,000 cubic feet per second.
Interestingly Saudi Arabia has been super wasteful of their water too.
They have all but drained their aquifers that takes thousands of years to replenish in a bid to become self sufficient in their food supplies. Now they are taking some corrective action with investing more in desalination, reducing certain type of agricultural produce etc.
One of the theoretical advantages of an absolute monarchy or any other totalitarian form of government is that it should be able to make unpopular decisions (i.e. prevent the people from accessing groundwater resources) that are good in the long run (i.e. the aquifers don't all run out within a few decades). Strange how that plays out in reality.
> should be able to make unpopular decisions that are good in the long run
Well, no, totalitarianism is characterized by the unilateral exercise of power, and the results will vary wildly depending on who your tyrant is. Tyrants are easily as dumb as the average person; dumber, perhaps, if you think that absolute power corrupts one's ability to view the world objectively (or that those who have a tendency to seek absolute power might correlate with those who do not have the best interests of others at heart).
They would've if they took the Chinese approach to gradually improve the standard of living organically through productivity improvements and education. Saudi Arabia instead immediately skyrocketed their standard of living far past what the population can do productively without oil. Populations don't take well to huge standard of living decreases that are inevitable when oil $ runs out to subsidize everything in the state enormously.
> They would've if they took the Chinese approach to gradually improve the standard of living organically through productivity improvements and education.
Well, since the topic is authoritarianism, note that the Chinese approach resulted in a few tens of millions dead, which is worse than what the Saudis have managed so far: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Leap_Forward
It's actually a brilliant move on the part of the Saudis. They are essentially pumping Arizona's aquifer across the globe and the alfalfa is a convenient storage mechanism.
This article has a good breakdown of where the Colorado's water goes.
TL;DR:
- 55% goes to livestock feed (hay, alfafa, etc.)
- 11% cotton
- 14% other food crops
- 4% thermoelectric power
- 4% commercial & industrial
- 12% residential
I'd be further interested to know how much of each of those are exported (the article mentions that a 2020 study estimated 10-12% of all US livestock feed crops are exported).
It seems ridiculous that we're putting the economic benefits of exporting these crops against the long-term sustainability of citizens living in the region.
In addition to the reasons they list, I'd like to point out that Almonds are actually native to the desert in Iran and the Levant. I've found them in the wild while hiking in the desert in the middle east.
This is one of those “but where does the water go” questions that have to be answered to determine the true effect.
Eg - if ten gallons per almond is true, and one goes to evaporation and nine into the aquifer it’s much different than if five evaporate, four run off into the ocean, and one sinks into the ground.
Utah has a similar problem. The governor has an alfalfa farm yet has gotten on TV to demand that Utahns pray for rain. 80% of Utah's water consumption is agricultural. If the governor wanted to reduce Utah's water problem, he should start by putting his money where his mouth is, and stop growing such an abusive crop.
Unlike Arizona, it appears that much of Utah's alfalfa crop gets exported to China.
80% of the Colorado River water usage is agricultural. [1]
Forget not drinking water or taking a shower - eat one less steak or skip a handful of almonds. That's where all the water is actually going.
[1] https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/sep/12/colorado...