What little is left irrigates Mexico's richest farm region. To water specialists, the overtapped Colorado River basin is symbolic of a calamity facing much of the world. Fresh water reserves are disappearing fast. These experts see the California power crisis as the harbinger of much worse to come. People can survive power cuts and even live without oil, he adds.
Water is another matter entirely.
Like China's lifeline Yellow River and other waterways on six continents, the Colorado often runs dry before reaching its mouth. Across America and the world, ancient underground lakes are squandered by overpumping. Pesticides, fertilizers and solvents poison some aquifers far below the surface. Others take on salt water when levels drop too low. The planet has no more fresh water than it did millennia ago.