Sharing the Colorado river
Résumé
This chapter focuses on the last phases of the socio-history of western water policy
that have been described in the previous chapter. In the aftermath of the golden age of
megaprojects, the Central Arizona Project (CAP) is the culmination of two social com-
ponents of the New Deal era; a great belief in the engineering skills to build up big water
infrastructures and the politicking practices for territorial sovereignty over water in the
West (
Willey & Gottlieb, 1982
). These prerequisites for success, which are key to under-
stand how the idea of Central Arizona Project came up, have deepened in the context of
the increased economic development of the West affecting the post Second World War
period. Furthermore, the Central Arizona Project mirrors a transitory phase towards a
much decentralized and multi-layered decision-making process in water issues. Lastly,
choosing to come back to the history of the CAP enables to better appreciate what is
going on in the current context of looming water shortage in the West. In addition to
be designed as a technical response to an excessive groundwater pumping, the Central
Arizona Project is also the product of specific and temporary alliances between elites
from the political, economic and administrative spheres, which have structured and still
structure social tensions with regard to the existing drought situation.