Sonoran Desert Future

I attended a presentation by the Watershed Management Group at the library.  This is Joaquin Murrieta-Saldivar, PhD.  He is the group's Cultural Ecologist .  It was a fascinating presentation covering the diminishing water supplies for the southern Arizona watershed: rivers, water tables and resources.  All are of major concern for the sustenance of human, plant and animal life in the desert.

The Sonoran Desert is the most bio-diverse desert in the world. But even desert life needs water to survive.  We have two sources of water: the imported, unsustainable Colorado River and the local, renewable supply of rainwater.  We average about 12"/30 cm of precipitation per year and the trend throughout the last decade has it on the decline.

Two solutions are being proposed by this group and the local water authorities.  The first is conservation.  The average daily usage per person is 85 gallons.  The goal is reduce that to 40.  The other proposal is to increase municipal, private and residential use of water reclamation, or harvesting.  Basically, this is the collection of rainwater that can be used for irrigation, potable water or groundwater recharge.

It's all as simple as it is complicated but the bottom line is that our biodiversity is suffering because of the most shallow water table in history resulting in a dearth of water in our rivers and streams. Some causes are population growth, diminishing resources, personal overuse and climate change. If we, and everything around us, are to survive changes must be made by us all.