What Is Your Part in Creating Our Hydro- Local Future? | ¿Cómo Ayudarás a Realizar Nuestro Futuro Hidro-Local?
A first-ever Colorado River water shortage was declared this year, which will lead to major cutbacks for Arizona as well as Nevada. This crisis has been developing since the Colorado River’s original 1922 Compact, which allocated more river water to cities than is available in average rainfall years. Drought, climate change, and the drying up of the Colorado River and other rivers across the West paint a grim picture for the future of Western cities, but also create an imperative for a new path forward. We at WMG believe the most effective solutions to our water crisis are at hand, and that nature can be our greatest teacher. What can we learn from the water cycle, which is never wasteful and always replenishing? What wisdom do our rivers hold? And what can we learn from Native American communities that stewarded our waters since pre- history? In other words, how can we return more than we use? Status quo thinking would plan for bigger, more expensive water infrastructure solutions— looking outward for the next drop of water and a massive technology fix. But in just a hundred years of mismanagement, we have lost most of our wetlands, floodplains, soil cover, and forests, squandering the local waters that people and ecosystems rely on. Instead of continuing to look outward for more water and depleting our environment, let’s turn inward. Let’s steward and cherish our local, renewable waters. Let’s create a Hydro-Local future! Living Hydro-Local means using and stewarding local, renewable water supplies, including rainwater, greywater, and stormwater, and ensuring that when surface water and groundwater are used, that they are always replenished locally. If you’re already on the Hydro-Local path, it’s time to become a teacher and inspire others! If this is all new to you, we’re eager to help get you started. In this newsletter, you’ll find simple but impactful actions that you can take while connecting to your community and the sacredness of water—a precious resource that is essential to all life on Earth.