Overview
- The binational river system supplies drinking water to roughly 15 million people and irrigates nearly 2 million acres, yet some reaches now run dry for months in places such as Big Bend and parts of Albuquerque.
- The most comprehensive accounting to date finds 52% of consumption draws down reservoirs and aquifers rather than being balanced by natural replenishment, with New Mexico’s largest reservoirs only 13% full by late 2024.
- Irrigated agriculture is the dominant driver of use at about 87% of direct consumption, with cattle‑feed crops like alfalfa and grass hay identified as major contributors.
- Water shortages have already helped drive farmland losses from 2000–2019, including 18% in Colorado’s headwaters, 36% along the Rio Grande in New Mexico, and 49% in the Pecos tributary.
- Proposed responses include rotational fallowing payments for farmers, investments to improve supply, efficiency and storage, and tighter groundwater controls, all within the constraints of interstate compacts and the 1944 U.S.–Mexico treaty.