Life in the Arizona desert depends on the Colorado River, which is drying up. To save their livelihoods, the people there must overcome their political divisions. Can they do that in today’s USA?
Water supply is the dominant issue in the Valley of the Sun, a desert strip stretching for a hundred kilometers through Arizona, deep in the southwestern United States. At night, the reason becomes clear: a sea of lights extends across the entire length of the valley floor. Phoenix, already the fifth-largest city in the US, has merged with its neighbors Scottsdale and Tempe to form an urban behemoth with almost 5 million inhabitants. Hardly any other region in the US is growing faster. The valley is now also known as the “Silicon Desert” because of its chip factories.
