NM's water use is not sustainable, creates great risk | Opinion

More than three-fourths of the water being used by farmers and cities along the Rio Grande is unsustainable. These communities are using more water than nature can replenish — and there's no plan for paying that debt back. That needs to change soon, because New Mexico's economy, communities and way of life depend on it.

For nearly 25 years, communities that depend on the Rio Grande have been taking more water from the river and its connected aquifers than the system can sustainably restore. To make up the deficit, we're drawing down what was stored in reservoirs and underground, much like draining a savings account to cover an overdrawn checking account.

The numbers tell the story. Since 2002, the six major reservoirs along the Rio Grande and its tributaries in New Mexico have lost more than a million acre-feet (for context, one acre-foot equals about 326,000 gallons—enough to supply two or three households for a year). Frighteningly, the reservoirs have dropped to 13% of their capacity, placing New Mexicans in danger of losing all their reserve supplies in just one or two more dry years.

The overdraft is much worse underground. Many New Mexicans living or farming along the Rio Grande depend on aquifers whose levels have been dropping for decades.

Our detailed analysis can be found here .

Fortunately, there are a lot of very smart and dedicated people in New Mexico working hard to rebalance the state's water budget. But much more still needs to be done. New Mexico urgently needs a comprehensive, statewide plan to bring water use back into sustainable balance across all Rio Grande water users—farmers, cities, and industries alike. With New Mexico's water savings running dry, the state must stop living on borrowed water and start living within its means.

Brian Richter is a global expert on water scarcity and its solutions, and a senior freshwater fellow with the World Wildlife Fund. Enrique Prunes is the Rio Grande Manager and Freshwater Lead Specialist for Freshwater at the World Wildlife Fund.

This article originally appeared on Las Cruces Sun-News: NM's water use is not sustainable, creates great risk