Last year in Wenden, Arizona, researchers found that water in a well was moving. Why is this abnormal? Because the water is from an aquifer, not a river, so it should be still. The issue is that a nearby farm owned by the company Al Dahra is pumping out water excessively. Groundwater is one of the key resources of the southwest, often compared to gold. However, 80% of Arizona has no laws to regulate the amount of water that companies use for their farms, and there is no way to track it. In consequence, Wenden and Salome’s groundwater supply is being rapidly depleted, and the only way to save it is by implementing new policies.
Alfalfa
Al Dahra, a company from the United Arab Emirates, owns a lot of land in the southwestern United States. They use this land for growing a crop called alfalfa that they then send back to the United Arab Emirates to feed their cattle. You may be thinking “why can’t they just grow the crop in the UAE?” Well, it is illegal there, because of the extremely low groundwater levels. So, their only solution was to farm in other countries. Normally, this would be perfectly fine. However, the company is excessively draining the water supply. To make matters worse, there is no law preventing Al Dahra from pumping out excess water, the company will keep doing it and eventually the groundwater levels could deplete past the point where it's safe.
In the late 1950’s, the groundwater level of the aquifer was 100 feet. Now, it's 540 feet. This is a whopping 440% drop, and the people of Arizona are noticing the effects. For example, people have been trapped in their homes because of the mud outside that was caused by rainfall runoff. These people believe that the Al Dahra farm staff rerouted the natural waterways which changed the location of rainfall runoff into their town instead of the desert washes. Schools and homes may be affected if the water continues to be excessively pumped with no restrictions.
In order to save Arizona’s groundwater levels, new policies must be implemented to limit the amount of water that companies such as Al Dahra can use for their farms. Otherwise, they will continue using more and more water that will cause adverse effects for the land. For example, one policy that they could implement is limiting the amount of groundwater any corporate can pump out to use for their farms. Also, they can implement a policy that limits the amount of water that can be used by foreign companies for farming.
It is time for the government to become more proactive in protecting the country's water supply. They should be tracking the amount of groundwater that each company uses and making sure that it doesn’t exceed a certain limit. There is no time left to wait, because we are already facing severe consequences.
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