Ongoing challenge of water in the West drives policy program
By Cynthia Pasquale
In the West, the need for water – and managing that need – provides a never-ending challenge.
“Few, if any, issues will be more influential in shaping the future of the West than how the region manages its scarce water supplies,” says Douglas Kenney, director of the Western Water Policy Program (WWPP) at the Getches-Wilkinson Center for Natural Resources, Energy and the Environment at CU-Boulder. “As a society, we really need to get this right, or we’ll pay the price in terms of stagnant economies and unhealthy environments.”
“Getting it right” can be a tricky business that involves pulling together expertise from dozens of disciplines, balancing the different values that people hold regarding water resources, and understanding that as water supplies get stretched thinner and thinner, the issues can get tense and political, he says.
