Arizona is the fastest-growing state in the western part of the United States since 2006. With that comes a lot more population and the question that starts to rise is this; “What’s the visibility and the sustainability of that heading to Arizona’s future?” People question whether the natural resources can sustain the entire population growth that is currently happening. Since people question it, today, we’ll be covering Arizona’s sustainability and the Phoenix water crisis.
From what I’ve heard, everyone has a good outlook on where this city is going for the future, so let’s start with the population. Currently, Arizona is one of the fastest-growing states in the entire country and that’s no secret post covid. Let’s go back to the 1940s. In the 1940s, roughly 500,000 people were living in the entire state. Now, Arizona has 7.6 million people in 2022. That is a huge increase, but the biggest increase decade over decade was from the 50s to the 1960s. The reason why we believe that the biggest attribution to that was the dimension of central air conditioning. Central air was invested before the 50s but didn’t become mainstream and affordable and available in buildings and houses until the late 50s going into the 60s.
Do you want to guess what the number one resource Arizona lacks the most… you guessed it, WATER! That’s why we are discussing the Phoenix water crisis. The water issue here today is the biggest long-term threat that Phoenix and Arizona face, and it more than likely will not be going away anytime soon. For example, in Casa Grande, the water supply is not guaranteed for a certain type of product class whether you own a single-family home or any other type of development. Depending on which city you’re located in, water can be more of a scarce issue. There is a good amount of water now here in Phoenix and almost all the water used in Phoenix gets reclaimed and reused. One major plant release 52 million gallons of water a day into its wetland areas and canal systems. The great thing about those is that they are sitting ready to be used as they go through water treatment plants.
Certain reservoirs are like wetlands where it doubles up as a wetland for animals too. It’s a holding pot to be reused for human beings and then gets recycled back into this whole system. Arizona supplies 23 billion gallons to a nuclear power plant and 16 billion gallons of water are allocated to crops. Only 14% of single-family homes in Phoenix have grass, so that helps cut back on the water more too. The reason why Phoenix only uses two-thirds of the water in the whole state is that they are putting so much technology into water-saving methods and issues and the residents overall are accommodating to understand not to use a surplus of water.
Do you think we’re in a Phoenix water crisis? Watch the video above for more information!