Water Awareness Month: A mission too important to quit celebrating

A silver lining sewn into the on-going struggles with drought in the Southwest is that water conservation is now, officially, a very real and permanent thing.

Communities are finding ways to extract water-thirsty non-native vegetation like decorative grasses, often replacing it with native plants that consume far less water. Water reuse is losing its “ick” factor. Major water consumers such as high-tech industries and farms are finding new and innovative ways to prioritize conservation of the West’s most valuable resource.

In many respects unique among Southwestern states, Arizona has been in “conservation mode” in its Active Management Areas for over 40 years. Elements of Arizona’s landmark Groundwater Management Act devoted to water conservation efforts have helped keep the state’s overall consumption of water to 1950s-era levels, when the state population stood at a small fraction of what it is today.

In Arizona, we celebrate water conservation. In that spirit, welcome to Water Awareness Month 2024. 

As part of the effort to keep the public aware of the many ways they can help conserve water, ADWR and our many WAM partners have organized a month of events promoting wise water use, to be kicked off on April 6 at a celebration of our water-conservation efforts to be held at Wesley Bolin Memorial Plaza.

Arizona Water Awareness Month is an annual outreach campaign to spread the word about the value of conserving the Southwest’s most precious natural resource, water. 

Our statewide commitment to conservation was first recognized by Arizona’s Governor in 2008 with an Executive Order that designates April as Water Awareness Month. In 2023, we expanded that commitment with the series of water-awareness events in addition to the April 6 festival.