Cynthia Beltran moved to Sunizona with her seven-year-old son last autumn even though the area lacks functional drinking water wells, because it was all she could afford. Beltran’s water woes are far from unique in the Willcox basin, an area of close to 2,000 sq miles (5,200 sq km) in Arizona’s south-east corner. Seventy-five wells were deepened in that time across the Willcox basin, Arizona Department of Water Resources (ADWR) records show. In Arizona, no regulations exist as to how much water farmers can pump in rural areas such as this. “The Willcox basin is the wild west – no rules, free water,” says Kristine Uhlman, a retired University of Arizona hydrologist.

Source: The Guardian June 02, 2021 09:56 UTC