The 2024 Colorado River Water Leaders cohort completed its seven-month program with policy recommendations involving ”augmentation” – projects that increase the availability and supply of water – as the Colorado River Basin grows hotter and drier.

The cohort of 12 up-and-coming leaders included engineers, lawyers, resource specialists and others working for public, private and non-governmental organizations from across the river’s basin. The cohort had full editorial control to choose its recommendations.

Their report provides a roadmap to promote a purposeful, continuing dialogue around the deployment of water augmentation projects, such as seawater and brackish desalination, water recycling and cloud seeding. The report outlines ways to reduce barriers to implementation through strategies that enable consensus around goals, information sharing and funding support.

The report recommends the formation of an inclusive Water Augmentation Community of Practice that would:

• Commit to continuous formal discussions on the future of augmentation in the Colorado River Basin.
• Create a system to identify and prioritize the most promising augmentation projects.
• Endorse a comprehensive, durable funding structure, supported by a wide group of contributors, to finance the launch of augmentation projects.

Click here to read the full report.

Cohort members presented their recommendations in September at the Water Education Foundation’s biennial Colorado River Symposium, an invitation-only event in Santa Fe, N.M., whose audience included key water managers, state and federal officials, tribal leaders and other interested groups throughout the Colorado River Basin.

Our biennial Colorado River Water Leaders program is modeled after our California Water Leaders program, which deepens the participants’ knowledge of water, enhances their leadership skills and prepares them to take an active, cooperative approach to decision-making on water issues. Leading experts and policymakers served as mentors to cohort members.

The next Colorado River Water Leaders cohort will be in 2026.