If California's third year drought and fourth year of drought goes on, what you're going to get in terms of actual direct human impacts, agriculture will get in trouble first. Las Vegas is actually spending a billion dollars to build a straw. They call it. It's actually a very large tunnel deep into Lake Mead. And that is because Las Vegas wants to be the last entity to take water out of Lake Mead should it drop below where the turbines operate Hoover Dam. So there's, there's many different implications coming coming down the pike. But as you point out, water is a renewable resource. That means that we're counting on wet years. If we just get one wet year
David Zetland of Leiden University College in the Netherlands and author of Living with Water Scarcity talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the challenges of water management. Issues covered include the sustainability of water supplies, the affordability of water for the poor, the incentives water companies face, and the management of water systems in the poorest countries. Also discussed are the diamond and water paradox, campaigns to reduce water usage, and the role of prices in managing a water system.