BEIJING, April 19 (Xinhua) According to the "Central News Agency" on April 18, two artificial lakes that store water for millions of people in the western United States and Mexico are expected to drop to a record low water level in the coming months, which may lead the United States federal government to issue a water shortage announcement for the first time and urge Arizona and Nevada to limit water.

The United States Bureau of Reclamation released its water regime forecast for the next 24 months this week, and it is expected that the flow of the Colorado River will decline. This river flows down from the Rocky Mountains, passes through the Bauer Reservoir and Lake Mead, and enters the dry desert and the Gulf of California in the southwestern United States.

It is expected that the water level of Bower Reservoir and Mead Lake will drop to a level that is sufficient for the Reclamation Bureau to officially announce the water shortage for the first time. The report points out that climate change has reduced the amount of snow water entering the Colorado River and its tributaries; The rising temperature also makes the soil more thirsty, and increases the evaporation of river water as it flows through the arid areas of the western United States.

The reclamation bureau's model predicts that the water level of Mead Lake will drop below 328m for the first time in June 2021. According to the agreement reached by the seven states (Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming) that depend on the water of the Colorado River, this water level will prompt the authorities to declare water shortage. However, the hydrological forecast in April has no binding effect.

Federal officials regularly issue long-term forecasts and use the results published in August each year to decide how to distribute the river water. If the predicted value does not improve by then, the Land Reclamation Bureau will announce that it will enter the level 1 water shortage state and implement water restriction in January 2022.

However, the water resources authorities said that if the drought continues as expected, they are confident that they can overcome the difficulty of water restriction through such preparatory measures as saving water and finding alternative water sources.