The ongoing Colorado River crisis and proposed solutions.

The Biden administration has proposed evenly cutting water allotments from the Colorado River to save what's left of the river, reducing water delivered to California, Arizona, and Nevada by as much as one-quarter. Overuse and a 23-year-long drought made worse by climate change have threatened to provoke a water and power catastrophe across the West. The river supplies drinking water to 40 million Americans as well as two states in Mexico, and irrigates 5.5 million agricultural acres. The proposal marks a new and painful phase in America’s efforts to adapt to the decades-long drought in the West.