Where Our Water Goes

Cows grazing along the North Platte River in Wyoming. Photo by Brian Richter

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Many communities and ecosystems around the globe are experiencing dangerous water shortages. These water crises result from an imbalance between water supplies and human demands: We are taking water from rivers, reservoirs, and groundwater aquifers at a rate faster than these water sources are being replenished. This is causing rivers to shrivel, and lakes and aquifers to be depleted. If this imbalance between supplies and demands persists for too long, we eventually won’t have enough water to meet the needs of people and ecosystems.

Efforts to resolve a water shortage crisis should always include heavy emphasis on reducing water consumption (the demand side). And any attempts to reduce water consumption should be founded on basic knowledge of how water is being used, so that water conservation efforts can be targeted effectively. But all too often, when news reporters tell stories about water shortages they make it sound as though cities are the biggest water consumers. This simply is not true in most cases!

A whopping 86% of all water consumed in the Western US goes to irrigating farms. More than a third of that irrigation water goes to irrigation of cattle feed crops for producing beef and dairy products.

To learn more about “Who’s really using up the water in the American West,” I strongly encourage you to watch this excellent 6-minute video produced by Vox. It is based on a paper our research group published in Nature Sustainability in 2020.

My sincere thanks to Laura Bult and her colleagues at Vox for helping to set the story straight!