Water Shortages and Climate Change Disrupt Growth in Southwest US

Climate change is causing water shortages in the American West, with Arizona being one of the hardest-hit states. The decline of groundwater in California’s Central Valley has accelerated dramatically in recent years, and states along the Colorado River are losing their aquifers far faster than the more visible shrinking of the nation’s largest reservoirs. Arizona has limited residential construction in some parts of the fast-growing Phoenix suburbs due to insufficient groundwater to meet projected demand over the next century. Water shortages are likely to reshape where people live and how much they pay to do so, and state leaders must begin making tough decisions about Arizona’s long-term future.