West Coast, Arizona invests heavily to avoid water crisis

The West Coast of the United States is at the center of a profound demographic revolution: millions of people are leaving California to move to neighboring states in search of better infrastructure, more efficient services, and a higher quality of life. The destinations are Utah, Texas, and especially Arizona. According to the annual study on the quality of infrastructure in America published in mid-July by CNBC, the phenomenon of internal migration is deeply linked to another issue, namely the capacity of public services to support these new demographic booms. The report by the television broadcaster ranks Arizona second in the US after Georgia for the quality of roads, bridges, ports, airports, broadband connectivity, the electrical grid, and water services. This unexpected result in many ways confirms the renewed vitality of the “desert state”, while also raising concerns, especially regarding a potential Arizona water crisis.

Arizona’s records cover many sectors, especially infrastructure. This state has one of the most reliable and sustainable electrical grids in the nation, with 24% of the state’s energy coming from renewable sources. The good results in energy infrastructure are complemented by those of major transportation routes. Only 13% of roads are in critical condition (a much lower percentage than in other states), and only 1% of bridges are in poor condition. Overall, Arizona is among the most active states in improving mobility, having just launched a five-year, $8.2 billion program to upgrade highways and connecting infrastructure. One of the most important ongoing projects involves work on the I-10, one of the most congested corridors in the United States, which crosses Arizona along the southern border, connecting eight states from Jacksonville, Florida, to Santa Monica, California, with a nearly 4,000-kilometer (2,400-mile) stretch of asphalt.

In the metropolitan area of Arizona’s capital, Phoenix, the population has reached 5 million, suburban areas are extending into the desert, and the GDP is continuously growing. But to support this “surge,” the state administration needs to invest in mobility infrastructure and especially in water infrastructure to primarily increase the availability of water for families and businesses, and at the same time addressing a potential water crisis.

In Arizona, the main source of water supply is the Colorado River, which, however, is one of America’s most at-risk rivers due to recurring droughts and more generally due to ongoing climate changes. The Colorado River also serves six other states, from Wyoming to Mexico, totaling about 40 million people. Therefore, the US federal government has allocated $4 billion for projects aimed at improving the river’s flow and – in the seven states benefiting from its waters – restoring old water pipelines in rural areas, introducing stricter regulation of consumption quotas by farmers, and, to a lesser extent, replacing obsolete pipes in some cities.

To address the limited water availability, Arizona has undertaken various actions to combat the water crisis, such as those carried out by the water departments of seven cities in the state that have committed to reducing the amounts of water they currently draw from Lake Mead, the largest reservoir in the nation. Despite the drought and problems related to climate change, the lake continues to guarantee the necessary water level thanks to the so-called “third straw” or Intake 3, built in 2015 by the Webuild Group, chosen by the Southern Nevada Water Authority for its global leadership in water infrastructure.

Intake 3 of Lake Mead is indeed capable of providing the region’s water treatment plants with up to 3,400 million liters of water per day, thus ensuring a significant part of Las Vegas’s water needs. To date, only infrastructures like these can provide an effective response to the water crisis, allowing the states fed by the Colorado River to continue to grow.