water: scarcities and disparities,”With rainfall light and increasinglyirregular, water must be imported toserve the dense urban settlements andindustries; agriculture is the mostdemanding water user.• Recently there has been increasingawareness that at present rates ofdevelopment, all of the users will needever more water, but the environment ofthe Colorado River basin cannot sustaineven present rates of water diversion.• Raising the cost of water to users wouldcontrol its use; now it is so cheap thatfew take the trouble to conserve waterbecause it seems almost a freecommodity.- The Colorado River, which flowsthrough some of the driest land in theContinental Interior, is modified bymany dams, reservoirs
and diversioncanals that enable river water to supplya host of cities in the Southwest.”