Why Utah Is Bucking One of the West's Oldest Water Rules

A federally-funded water conservation program, the System Conservation Pilot Program, is paying farmers in the Upper Colorado River Basin to not use the river’s water during the irrigation season. Leaving their fields dry for the program can earn them more money than they would get from growing crops.

The Utah state government is offering grants to encourage and enable farmers to invest in water-saving technology amid a severe drought. A farmer who wants to install a better irrigation system, like drip irrigation, will pay for half of the upgrade and the state will pay for the other half.

In the Ladakh region of Northern India, vertical artificial glaciers called “ice stupas” melt at a slower pace than natural glaciers, helping farmers to store water for irrigation during the spring drought. Through contests with cash prizes, more than 500 people in 45 villages have been trained to build their own ice stupas.

Farmers in Utah practice no-till farming to improve soil health and water retention amid an ongoing drought.

A government scheme in Pakistan involves the construction of water-harvesting dams in areas that experience droughts, which allows farmers in the region to use the irrigation water from the dams for their crops. One farmer is growing onions and wheat and because of the access to water, his income has increased more than 60 percent. There are concerns about how helpful the water from the dams will ultimately be in the arid region, but there are plans to build more dams in the next few years.

Colorado is only now recovering from a 16-year long drought that resulted in the aquifer irrigation system becoming increasingly dry. Until the farmers decided to tax themselves for water consumption, realizing that saving water now and taxing themselves would protect their farms and livelihood in the long run.

A hydraulic network of man-made water tanks built 2,000 years ago, called an ellangawa, collects rainwater that locals in Maeliya, Sri Lanka, can release during the dry season to support the rice crop and recharge the groundwater.

Tulare Irrigation District in California encourages farmers to flood their fields with water during the wet season, so it can slowly seep underground and recharge the groundwater aquifers. Those who do so earn credit that can be redeemed during the dry season to extract more water than they would otherwise be allowed.

An Arizona farmer became the first organic regenerative certified farm in the southwest using practices that conserve water and improve soil health along the drought-stuck Gila River. His practices include growing arid-adapted crops, integrating livestock grazing, and planting cover crops.

Farmers are upgrading to automated irrigation systems with 50-50 matching grants from the Utah Department of Agriculture. The systems save farmers’ time and water.