Distributing Water Resources in the Colorado River Basin Water is a scarce and vital resource in the arid parts of the U.S. Southwest. Located in this area are 26 million people, 4.5 million acres of agricultural land, numerous industries, power generators, livestock, and wildlife, all depending on one main source for water: the Colorado River. In total, the Colorado River Basin supplies water to Mexico, ten American Indian tribes, and seven U.S. states. U.S./Mexican and U.S. state water-use allocation totals have been strictly negotiated in numerous interstate and international legal contracts, including the Colorado River Compact of 1922 and the Mexican Water Treaty of 1944. Each entity is allocated a certain amount of water from the river, totaling 16.5 million acre-feet (see chart below). 3 Recent droughts and increases in population have severely strained the region's water resources and created a supply/demand imbalance. When cities have fixed water supplies, increases in population mean less water per person, and water conservation increases in importance. Fixed supplies also intensify the value of the legal agreements among the states and nations contending for water. Without these agreements, water would be misused by those with early access to it, leaving little for people downstream Which statement from the article is an opinion?
