The Colorado River is a critically important resource that supplies water to more than 40 million people, including those in major cities like Los Angeles and Las Vegas. But now, an ongoing megadrought in the Western United States is causing water shortages across the entire river basin.

In a recent study led by Kevin Wheeler of Oxford’s Environmental Change Institute, experts report that the ongoing megadrought – along with impacts from climate change and systematic overuse – have created a deep management crisis. The researchers argue that drastic measures and difficult decisions are needed to avoid severe outcomes and to prevent a further decline in water levels.

While the public is well aware that water cuts are inevitable and that policy changes are necessary, the negotiations between the basin states will be anything but simple.