Geography Teaching Today

Key questions:

• Why is Las Vegas so thirsty?
• How are residents being encouraged conserve water?
• Why are schemes for meeting Las Vegas's future water demands likely to prove contentious?

Key Concepts:
Place
Interdependence
Environmental interaction and Sustainable Development

Why is Las Vegas so thirsty?
Las Vegas is famous for dazzling fountains but the sprawling city that has been developed in the arid desert of Nevada, USA, is experiencing water shortages as its population grows in one of the fastest growing regions in the USA. Although the surrounding landscape is dry the city itself is relatively lush. This contrast is best seen from a satellite image of Las Vegas. But water supplies are running out. Surprisingly, it is not the fault of the tourists and the hotels. Hotels accounts for just 7% or the area's total water usage - 70% of which they use in rooms and kitchen and recycle. It is the growing number of residents moving from the other parts of the USA using water on lawns and gardens to recreate their lush and greener places of origin that is causing the city to become increasingly thirsty.

How are residents being encouraged conserve water?
Officials are promoting to local residents the idea of ‘xeriscaping', or ‘dry landscaping', a method of maintaining the lush looking garden using less than a half or a third of the water. Some schemes have paid residents to remove grass form their front and rear gardens. The idea is that people understand what it means to live in the desert rather than live unsustainably in water-rich bubble.

Why are schemes for meeting Las Vegas's future water demands likely to prove contentious?
The Southern Nevada Planning Authority is planning to build a 555km pipeline from central Nevada to Las Vegas as a solution to the city's future water supply problems. This may prove controversial because:

1. The water will be moved from rural areas where farmers need it to grow crops
2. Springs and natural habitats may disappear if the groundwater is pumped out and taken away by the pipeline
3. Growth of the population in the area is putting pressure on national conservation areas such as Lake Mead and Red Rock Canyon

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