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Kamala Harris: “States of the Colorado River Basin are interdependent”

States of the Colorado River Basin are interdependent” Kamala Harris: “Estados de la Cuenca del Rio Colorado son interdependientes”

US VICE PRESIDENT VISITED COLORADO

Newsroom El Comercio de Colorado

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US Vice President Kamala Harris said that “conflicts between the states of the Colorado River Basin that stem from the prolonged drought of at least 25 years can be resolved with the understanding that all states and their residents are interdependent. What happens to all the water sources in California also affects Coloradans. Likewise, what is happening in Colorado affects the region. We are interconnected and we are interdependent,” Harris said. States of the Colorado River Basin.

She continued, “I think we will be smarter with policies and resources because we fully embrace that understanding. Using this perspective will allow us to understand the importance of collaboration in policies related to water”. These affirmations must be understood in the context of the impossibility that the six states of the Colorado River basin have had to reach an agreement on the reduction quotas for the extraction of water from the basin.

In the absence of an agreement to renegotiate the Colorado River Compact, it will be the authorities of the federal government and not the states that set the extraction quotas for each state. Harris also expressed that, due to the development of projects related to the use of satellites, the US government and researchers have made progress on a map related to water sources in the United States and in the world. The Vice President will present the usefulness of this map to African governments on her next visit to that continent.

Climate change, drought and migrations

Harris also highlighted the interconnectedness of the water issue with climate change and the global migration crisis. “When the effects of climate change produce extreme drought, it will be impossible to grow food. Then people are going to have to leave that place to go to another place where they have to speak a different language and have to pray, even a different God. This migration will invariably lead to some degree of conflict,” explains Harris.