The two largest reservoirs in the United States, Lake Mead and Lake Powell, which provide water and electricity to millions of people, are on the way to becoming “dead pools”. English), alert the UN.
This means that their water levels are so low that the dam’s gates are not submerged enough to power the hydroelectric turbines, which in particular produce electricity.
“Lakes Mead and Powell Dam not only provide drinking water and electricity to tens of millions of people – in Nevada, Arizona, California, Wyoming, Colorado, New -Mexico and in the neighboring country of Mexico – but also irrigation water for agriculture”, can we read in the press release of the UN
Satellite images of Lake Mead, the largest reservoir in the United States, show “a stark illustration of climate change and a long-term drought that may be the worst in the Western United States for twelve centuries”, NASA commented in a statement.
Lake Mead is only 27% full, its lowest level since the reservoir was filled in 1937, says The New York Times, adding that the lake level must remain above 1,000 feet to continue to operate the dam’s hydroelectric turbines.
“After decades of drought, water levels at Lake Powell, the second-largest man-made reservoir in the United States, have fallen to their lowest level since it was created more than 50 years ago,” had also alerted, in April, the ESA EarthObservation agency, publishing the evolution of the surface of the water retention basin, between March 2018 and March 2022.
Supply crisis fears
When full, the Lake Powell Dam can produce 1,320 megawatts, or 5 billion kilowatt hours of electricity per year, reports The Guardian .
With the drop in water levels, hydroelectric production dropped to 800 megawatts, forcing the authorities to take exceptional measures.
The Bureau of Reclamation, which oversees water resource management in the West, urged states to take urgent action to protect critical reservoir levels in 2023.
“We are now beyond the drought”
Experts from the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) point to drought linked to the climate crisis and overconsumption of water, due in particular to population growth and irrigation for agriculture.
“Weather conditions observed in the American West around the Colorado River Basin have been so dry for more than twenty years that we are now beyond drought”said UNEP ecosystem expert Lis Mullin Bernhardt. “We are talking about aridification to define this new level”can we read in the press release of the UN.
Water restrictions have already been announced, but Maria Morgado, UNEP’s Ecosystems Officer for North America, fears that these measures are not enough. “The regulation and management of water supply and demand is obviously essential in the short and long term, but the heart of the problem is climate change”, she said in the same statement. “We need to tackle the root causes of climate change as well as water demands. »
