Friday, August 19, 2022

The Colorado River is Drying Up


... while the main worry of the leader in charge is Indian Water Rights.  
I started to follow the West water supply problem twenty years ago when I was teaching in Baja California. The American Californians had decided to save the smelt sardine by channeling enormous volumes of drinking water down the Sacramento River and the Pacific. I imagined that the West desperately needs Israeli water engineers. Since then, their obsession with woke issues developed to the point that they handed the water sector, that is the Reclamation Bureau, to a Philippine-born social activist, who is very passionate about native children with no running water but has no idea of hydrology or water policy. 

"One of my proudest professional achievements was working through legislation that settled the water rights claims for seven Indian tribes and pueblos in New Mexico, Arizona, and Montana,” Touton says.

“You see a kid who doesn’t know any better, that water should be coming out of their tap and not hauling it from their trucks every week. Now, I lead the agency that is implementing that law and building the water projects that bring water into their home. It’s a great privilege.”

The situation in the West is dramatic and nothing is being done, just waiting for the rains. 

"She comes from the Philippines; she knows what it is to be poor. She has a big heart in addition to being very smart. It’s not about ambition or money; it’s having that passion. The water issue now for poor communities is huge. And I’m not worried because Camille is there.”

Is Reclamation Commissioner Camille Calimlim Touton the right person in the right position at the right moment?  

No comments:

Post a Comment