The disappearing water in the American desert's watering hole

Article by Cecilia Rehn. Edited by Duncan Robinson. Additional Research by Ellie Veryard.

It has been called the city of sin, gambling, and Frank Sinatra. What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas. The popular media enforces this catchphrase, with films such as The Hangover (2009) portraying the party town as a place where tourists from all over can enjoy life’s excesses and party hard, with apparently few consequences.

It is proving hard however, for local residents to ignore the consequences: the arising problems of population growth as well as a diminishing water supply. The city’s history of energy consumption, particularly water, is now causing internal conflicts as well as reprimands from conservation groups.

Located in the Southwestern region of the United States, Las Vegas has always been known as a watering hole since it’s official birth in 1905, quenching the thirst of many travellers in the arid desert. The city boomed during the Great Depression when the construction of the Hoover Dam provided both jobs for the thousands of immigrants who decided to reside in the area as well as cheap energy for the creation of a metropole. This energy has been used to transform the city into one of large housing complexes, gigantic hotels, luscious landscapes and large water features. It certainly appears a surprising cool sanctuary in a climate where temperatures of 40° C are regularly reached and exceeded. Yet the city is far from an oasis, its extensive climate control costs the city 190 gallons of water per person per day to maintain. With a population of almost two million, the ‘watering hole’ is more like a patch of quicksand, sucking up everything around it.

Large conflicts have arisen within the state, where farmers accuse the city of using their allocated water supply much needed for cattle feed. Patricia Mulroy, manager of the Southern Nevada Water Authority feels this has been a long time coming, and is a reflection of a larger global water crisis. During the 1990s she orchestrated water reclamation projects which included piping water from rural Nevada into the main city, and increasing the allocated Colorado river share.

‘If it’s wet, we go get it,’ was the sentiment expressed by leading members of her team. It was this approach that caused much frustration amongst the farmers who were left with failing crops and the argument “one casino employs more than all of the ranches and rural farms” offered no consolation. It’s the emphasis on revenue and not on ecological sustainment which is angering the activists, as water is being pumped in to the artificial Las Vegas, without much consideration to the desert’s natural ecosystem.

Today Las Vegas is still reaching population records and despite green efforts such as restrictions on lawn sprinklers amongst the local communities, water consumption is still an issue. With other neighbouring states like California are vying for more water from the Colorado river this conflict is unlikely to get solved peacefully, but a conclusion must be reached within the next decade or the oases in the Southwest will all run dry.

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