Federal officials say Arizona, Nevada and Mexico must again live with less Colorado River water as drought lingers in the West

Arizona, Nevada and Mexico will be subject to substantial cuts from their Colorado River allocations for the third year in a row, the Bureau of Reclamation announced Friday. The agency made these determinations in its August 2025 24-month study,

For more than a century, a collection of deals, treaties and legal agreements have divided up the Colorado River’s water, a vital supply for 40 million people, seven states in the U.S. and two in Mexico, 30 federally recognized tribal nations and 5.5 million acres of agriculture.