Arizona, Nevada and Mexico hit with water cuts over Colorado River

Water conservation measures could affect more than 40 million people over next four years

An aerial shot of a depleted reservoir on Grand Mesa outside Grand Junction, Colorado. Janie VanWinkle relies on the reservoir to feed her cattle.

An aerial view of Frank Nieslanik’s farm. On one side of the road, the fields have been irrigated. On the other, they haven’t.

Lake Granby in Colorado is part of the headwaters that feed the Colorado River.

An aerial view of Frank Nieslanik’s farm in Grand Junction, Colorado.

An aerial shot of Janie VanWinkle’s ranch shows how dry conditions have become. Down the hill, where the grass is green, shows the difference irrigation makes.

Frank Nieslanik poses next to produce grown on his farm. He’s farmed the land for 30 years and has never seen it so dry.

An aerial view of an irrigation canal on Frank Nieslanik’s farm shows the difference water makes to crops.

Farm workers sow a field at Frank Nieslanik’s farm in Grand Junction, Colorado. The Colorado River has been in a drought for 22 years, putting stress on the state’s farmers.

An aerial shot of Janie VanWinkle’s ranch outside Grand Junction, Colorado, shows how dry conditions have become.

Keith Musselman, a scientist at the University of Colorado’s Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research, looks out towards the continental divide.

Produce from Frank Nieslanik’s farm in Grand Junction, Colorado. The Colorado River has been in a drought for 22 years, putting stress on the state’s farmers.

A view from the top of Grand Mesa overlooking the dry Western Slope of Colorado. In July, the state’s governor declared a drought emergency.

Janie VanWinkle drives a tractor as she collects hay for her cows. The drought has meant she needs more hay than usual to keep her cattle healthy.

Snow still graces the top of a peak in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. Snowpack from the mountains is vital to the health of the Colorado River, which provides water to 40 million people in the American South-West and Mexico.

An irrigation canal runs through a farm in Grand Junction, Colorado. The area is famous for its cattle and produce.

A view of Frank Nieslanik’s farm. On one side of the road, the fields have been irrigated. On the otherside, they haven’t.

Lake Granby in Colorado is part of the headwaters that feed the Colorado River.

An untapped irrigation pipe at one of the tracts of land Janie VanWinkle and her family graze their cattle on.

Janie Van Winkle’s husband, Howard, drives a tractor as she collects hay for her cows. The drought has meant she needs more hay than usual to keep her cattle healthy.

A field is irrigated at Frank Nieslanik’s farm in Grand Junction, Colorado. The Colorado River has been in a drought for 22 years, putting stress on the state’s farmers.

A winding portion of the Colorado River.

A depleted reservoir high on top of Grand Mesa near Grand Junction, Colorado.

A cow stands on a dry patch of grass on one of the tracts of land Janie VanWinkle and her family use to graze them on.

A stretch of the Colorado River, near the river’s headwaters.

A second round of drastic water cuts along the Colorado River is set to hit the states of Arizona and Nevada as well as Mexico as climate change-driven drought exacerbates shortages, the US Interior Department announced on Tuesday.

The Bureau of Reclamation called for all seven Colorado River Basin states to conserve water over the next four years and said it will withhold 21 per cent of Arizona’s annual allocation of river water in 2023 as the first ever water shortage in the area continues for another year, the agency said.

Lakes Mead and Powell, reservoirs on the Colorado River that supply the south-western part of the country with water, and hydropower are both at 28 per cent of their capacity, the agency said.

The drought and the historically low levels of the two lakes — which threatens their ability to generate hydropower — have prompted the bureau to call for water conservation measures through 2026 in all seven states in the Colorado River Basin, which supplies water to 40 million people from Denver, Colorado, to Los Angeles, California.

The 2023 cuts, called “water savings contributions”, are based on existing agreements developed by Congress and are coming initially from Lake Mead, the agency said. They also include an 8 per cent cut for the state of Nevada and a 7 per cent cut in Mexico’s share of the river water.

The drought is not yet severe enough for California to lose its share yet, the agency said.

Officials from the states are also scrambling to meet a deadline imposed by the Bureau of Reclamation to slash their water use by at least 15 per cent to keep water levels at the river’s storage reservoirs from dropping even more.

The penstock towers on the reservoir side of the Hoover Dam. In normal years, the water would be significantly higher.

Horseshoe Bend, a natural U-turn in the Colorado River downstream of Lake Powell.

Professor David Kreamer of the University of Nevada Las Vegas looks out over the Hoover Dam.

A wide shot Lake Mead and the Las Vegas Marina reveals how low the water levels are this year.

A stretch of the Colorado River, looking downstream from Horseshoe Bend.

The Hoover Dam was completed in 1936, creating Lake Mead, the largest reservoir in the US.

The chalk-white ring on the canyon walls reveals how much the water has dropped in Lake Mead in recent years.

A stretch of the Colorado River along Route 128 in Utah.

A dry stretch of the Colorado River bed outside of Moab, Utah.

A ring of white shows where the water level once reached on Lake Powell.

Fish swim in Lake Mead near the Las Vegas Marina.

Cory Olsen, 64, poses on his motorboat at a boat ramp on Lake Powell. Mr Olsen has been boating on the lake since he was 12 and is alarmed by the low levels.

Tourists gather at Horseshoe Bend, a natural U-turn in the Colorado River.

Joe Lapekas, owner of Lake Powell Paddleboards in Page, Arizona, looks out at the water.

Kayakers carry their boats down the rocky banks of Lake Powell. In normal years, they would be able to float their kayaks off the tarmac ramp.

An arid landscape along Route 128 in Utah.

Kayakers rest on the dry shore of the Colorado River in Horseshoe Bend.

Together, the projections and the deadline for cuts are presenting western states with unprecedented challenges and confronting them with difficult decisions about how to plan for a drier future.

The cuts and the bureau’s basin-wide call for conservation over the next four years come after the Colorado River Basin states themselves failed to devise their own plan to conserve water.

Human-caused climate change has intensified the western US' extreme 23-year drought, which is responsible for rising temperatures, megafires burning large sections of forests, drying up streams and making the Rocky Mountain snowpack’s ability to feed the Colorado River more uncertain.

EU struggles with drought — in pictures

Dried mud and old trees at Colliford Lake in Cornwall, England, where water levels have severely dropped exposing the unseen trees and rocks in Cornwall's largest lake and reservoir. PA

A large section of exposed River Rhine riverbed, due to low water levels caused by drought, in Duesseldorf, Germany. Bloomberg

A boat on a bank of the receding Danube river, after a lengthy drought near the village of Cortanovci, Serbia. AP

People take a stroll on the river bed of the Waal as water levels dropped because of drought in Nijmegen, Netherlands. AP

People take photos on the southern tip of Margaret Island, which can be seen due to low water level of the River Danube, in Budapest, Hungary. AP

The dried-up river Tille in Lux, France. AP

A bridge, which is usually submerged, over the dried bed of Llwyn-on Reservoir, during a heatwave in Wales. Reuters

The Rhine river with low water levels in Cologne, Germany. AP

The Yesa reservoir and the Aragon River are practically without water in Yesa, Navarra, Spain. EPA

Low water levels at Baitings Reservoir in Ripponden, West Yorkshire, England. Reuters

Low water levels at the Odra river near Czelin village, north-western Poland. EPA

Boats on the dried bed of the drought-affected Doubs river on the border with France in Les Brenets, Switzerland. Reuters

A person sits by a reservoir with low water levels and dried grass at Walthamstow Wetlands in London, England. EPA

The dried-up River Po that has been affected by the worst drought in 70 years, near Borgo Virgilio, Italy. Reuters

News agencies contributed to this report