THE WATER CRISIS IN THE WEST

By Marina Fayfield

We paddled down the snaking riverwiththebirdschirpinginthe distance, and then finally eddied out where the brush separated. The canyons above us were glowing red, just like they had thousands of years ago. We tied up our boats, and started bushwackinguptowhatIlearned laterwasanAnasazigranary.The Anasazi, or the Ancestral Puebloans, were a group of people who lived in the Green Riverareafromaround600ce,to 1300 ce, when they mysteriously disappeared due to drought and other environmental factors (Diamond, 2005, 134). The drought that impacted the Anasazicouldverywellimpactus again. The Ancestral Puebloans were a thriving group of people untilthedroughthitthemin1275 (Diamond, 2005, p.135). The Anasazi relied on the river to survive, and most of their food source came agriculturally, for example,“The U.S. Southwest is a fragileandmarginalenvironment foragriculture-asisalsomuchof

It has low and unpredictable rainfall, quickly exhausted soils, and very low rates of forest regrowth” (Diamond 2005 p.137). This shows that without the river, the Anasazi were not able to grow crops, and feed their people.

Like the Anasazi, today we are facing a drought in the Southwest. We can either decide to keep using thewaterinthewaysthatwearecurrentlyandmake the problem worse, or we can change the ways we think and act around water to save it. Heather Hansman stated, “there is enough water to go around, it's the way we are using it that's the problem”(Hansman, personal communication, May 22, 2023). As people, we need to rethink the way we are using our water domestically, and agriculturally if wewanttostaylivingintheWest.

IntheWest,conditionscanchangeyear toyear,andwedon'tknowwhenwewill have a steady amount of rainfall and snow to sustain the river's flow each year. As humans, we become accustomed to a comfortable lifestyle lacking awareness of where our water is coming from, and wasting water. As previously stated by Hansman, there is enough water to go around, but it's the way we are managing it that is the problem.

The difficult but comforting part about the situation of water in the West is the fact that we are in control. We can choose the outcome of the water crisis. We can either choose to preserve the beautiful place that theAmericanSouthwestis,orwecanchoose toruntheriverdry,andfallliketheAnasazi.

As I hear the birds chirp, and the river run, I take a breath of the dry desert air, and hope that as people, we can learn to take care of this beautiful place. We stumble down the loose rocks from the Anasazi granary and get back into the metal boats that carry our livelihood on the river, and I say a silent prayer for the American Southwest.

THE

Inthebook, Collapse, byJaredDiamond, he explained that “we forget that conditions fluctuate, and we may not be able to anticipate when conditions will change. By that time, we may already have become attached to an expensive lifestyle, leaving an enforced diminished lifestyle, or bankruptcy as the sole outs” (Diamond, 2005, p.156). This shows that we can either choose to perish like the Anasazi,orwecanlearnhowtolivewith lesswater.