How will 1 million people get water in Arizona’s newest city? 

When developers say *sustainable development*, they really mean "*sustaining profits*," rather than creating communities that won't exhaust natural resources.

To all those who live in the Phoenix-Tucson area. The FACT that this guy said, "We can handle a million more people" says everything you need to know. When your house is worthless and you can't move--remember this program. When you can't move and you have no water for showers, laundry and drinking--remember this program. When the area has an AVERAGE summer temperature of 105 degrees and you can't leave--remember this program. Until then...Don't Look Up!

You can hear the discomfort in the developers' voices during the interviews. They're making it up as they go along. They're in it for whatever money they can pull out of it, they're in deep enough that they've got to see it through, get some units sold. Borrow water from here, steal it from there, truck it in. The situation is dire enough that this shouldn't even gain any traction, these projects should be halted, profits be damned, but King Dollar beckons. What do you do years down the road when you owe big bucks on a house with no water? Sell it to whom? For pennies? Further, does it bother not ones conscience that your new, unsustainable developments are robbing water from others? Many of whom have been in place prior to the present, 20+ year drought situation?

Developers and city bureaucracy just don’t care as long as they get their money on the front end. They don’t care about the long term consequences or who suffers as long as it isn’t them. You can’t tell me they didn’t see this coming a decade ago. WHY building permits are still being issued under these circumstances is beyond comprehension. Greed at the cost of the environment is all it amounts to. It’s all it has ever amounted to.

It isn't about sustainability it's about the money, they develop so they can make exorbitant profits for sardine crammed developments. They do not care about the future, they care about the profit.

Tough choices?. Like telling a development company they have NO right to make billions, like telling people they don't really have the right to move here, like deciding that AZ is supporting as big a population as it can. Like those hard choices.

Stop! Just stop building! We can't sustain the amount of people that keep moving here! More asphalt and concrete, the worse the heat bubble. This means no more rain. Monsoons, nothing but wind and dust. No water. Stop it!! Az native and it's sad to see what's happening.

Recycling their tears after realizing how stupid it was to buy a house in a place that has no water ?

Arizona is being ruined with crap like this. Growing up in AZ was awesome but as I get older I feel more and more that the state I grew up in will be unrecognizable in a short while😪 I miss the days where I could go swimming almost everyday of summer in a river or lake, ride my go kart in a wash or get home from school and watch Steve Nash go off on (my 45). Too many people that dont like our way of life have moved here 😪

dont build towns in such hostile places

Projects like this in the southwest are unsustainable. The greed of planners and politicians will be the ruin of cities that might survive if we all start acting responsibly now.

Developers like this should be tried by jury, and if convicted, jailed. Greed at the expensive of human lives isn't a crime for some reason?

Their Planning department should be held accountable (FIRED) for this mess

Man, who would of thought that it would be difficult to get water in the desert?!

As someone who grew up in Phoenix, I was always amazed that the golf courses get so much priority for water. I get that its $$$ for the area but the amount of water used for the golf courses is crazy.

Greed drives it all! I'm up in the inland northwest, but same thing happening here ... people moving in like crazy. We have the water, but it's sad to see extremely fertile river valley land turned into houses, then realize how much we are depending on places like Mexico for our food. No one seems to care about balanced approaches, only dollars!

People move into the desert and complain about not having water is like someone moving next to an airport and complaining about noise.

No new developments should be made at all through out arizona and no tech companys using crazy amounts of water need to be being built here. We need to fix up the areas we have that are falling apart.

Anyone who buys a home there is missing common sense ! There is no way I’d buy a home there !

I live in Queen Creek and it’s revolting how much this place has changed from a small little town to just another city full of traffic and it’s going to get hundreds of times worse before I have a chance of getting out of here. If people like city life so much there are plenty of cities west of here for you to move to. I don’t understand.

Arizona native here. This used to be a great place. Some development was needed. It was never meant to handle this many people. Over development has ruined AZ. I hate to see what it has turned into

We used to live in Gold Canyon, we move out due to overcrowded roads and daily road rage. All Pinal County can think about is build more houses. Developers make millions and crowd in more people.. Does anyone have a concern about highways? Hwy 60 has been overcrowded and a mess for years, nothing ever mentioned about building new roads, just bring people and more traffic.. Not to be negative, but for residents in the east valley it would be a blessing if this got shut down due to no water supply.

Don't move to AZ. Stay away

This is insane…. I cannot believe this is life

Anybody know a petition to sign to STOP all these New communities happening all over AZ.

I bet they won't disclose the lack of water to potential buyers

Why do y’all keep insisting on bringing people to Arizona? There’s enough!!!! We get like 2 inches of rain and y’all wanna use valuable water that we don’t have!??

If Southwestern United States wants unrestricted water rights they're going to have to tap into an inexhaustible water source like the Pacific Ocean to fulfill their needs.

Fact is, they won't. The aquifers are drying up, along with the Colorado River. There most likely won't be enough water for basic necessities such as drinking, bathing, etc. And to build something like this is incredibly irresponsible. Fortunately for me, I live very close to the Illinois and Mississippi rivers...

A million people living in a desert with no water. What could go wrong?

Why continue to develop? Just pure greed? If water is so scarce just stop the constant development. It’s getting so crowded out here in the east valley and QC area there needs to be a building slowdown or stop to preserve the remaining quality of life.

Have these developers taken a trip up to Lake Mead? The Colorado River is drying up. Hope they aren't seriously counting on the Colorado as the water supply for a million more people.

This is crazy. No matter how they spin it, unless each structure is designed with roof-water catchment systems. I live in Tucson and things have to change. Now.

the real question is.....what people would build their house on a desert?

And didn't we just lose about 80 million gallons of water with the pipe break on the Superstition Fwy! Our golf course in Phoenix is dead because we have no water! We need to get proactive about the present and worsening water shortage here in AZ.

Focusing on the infrastructure is important…not building in a desert is too. Greed doesn’t “think”!

I used to live in Arizona decades ago. Do the houses downtown still have flood irrigation for their yards? Ah, the good old days when there was plenty of water per capita. Crazy that such a project would be considered these days.

My spouse dream has been to live in Arizona since 2000. So we went to Bullhead city to see some houses. One was build on top of the high elevation mount and has no tree around to cover to cool the house. The temperature was 118 F at midday. I looked around. Nothing can grow on that soil. No water source accessible. If electricity goes off for long time, you are cooked. Now 2022 he still want to live there.I told him he can divorce me and go live there. I already see that it is not sustainable.

AZ resident since 2013 here. Tucson first and now Phoenix. Farming water intensive crops in a parched desert is what consumes the most water. It's 59 times more than residential use. It's absurd. Also, I think we should cover the canals with solar panels to cut down evaporation loss and make power at the sane time without having to do environmental impact studies or use up new land.

Holy cow, these developers are playing with real people's lives. I hope home buyers have the good sense not to buy a home where there is no water. At some point the rivers will be dry and the only option will be aquifers from the Gulf of California or the Pacific Ocean and de-salination, but I am not sure this is even possible. The commenters on this post are correct, their properties will be worthless. Hopefully, the loan underwriters won't loan money to people who will probably need to abandon their homes in the next 10 years.

The bigger question is how many of them are going to drink water exposed to radiation from nuclear bomb testing when they buried them in the ground

I moved to Az in 79. I’m so disgusted by all this growth spawned by greed.

Tough choices as in telling developers and investors no and hell no. Than yes i agree, im so done with this growth and investors making everything expensive and out of staters making it worse

“It’s a 50 year development” is code for “I’ll be dead then it will be someone else’s problem”

For the love of God, it's a damn desert. With no access to water, why build? Stupid is as stupid does. The homeowners in the end will be the ones to suffer.

This video just randomly popped up on my news feed. It serves as a great reminder of how fortunate I am to live in Buffalo NY where fresh water is bountiful and cheap.

Way to go, gready developers... Over price and no water 🤣

Ghost towns of the 2030's

I love how anybody whose been here between 20-30 years thinks they're some kind of pioneer. That's right, been here since before freeways and sports teams.

900,000 people on over 240sq miles. That’s extremely poor land use

The forestization of the Sahara desert is something we should seriously be looking into. It's changed weather patterns that have kept the newly planted forest alive. More plants = cooler temperatures = more rain and snow. They can all be native plants specific to the region, of course.

Moved to Scottsdale in 2005. Paid $850 for a condo on a golf course. Rent just increased to $2000!! The water situation is frightening and all the building and traffic has ruined a beautiful place. Left AZ 2 weeks ago for the midwest. At least they have water!! Still not cheap even here to live. I miss the former AZ.

Farming takes thousands upon thousands of gallons of water, so houses going in place of farm land is a wash. Houses going in place of desert is when you’ll see ground water dry up.

Las Vegas is pretty much doing the same thing, just insane. We're at around 1.2 C over our 1880 baseline and could hit 1.5 C by the end of this decade. These are global average temperatures so will feel effects globally not just Southwestern states.

Anyone who has done even a bit of research knows that future wars will be over water not oil. It is a scarce commodity and in some parts of the world, there are already conflicts over water. California, Airzona and Neveda do not have enough water for a fourth of their population. When the water runs out or is trucked in and costs more than your mortgage every month, the value of your home will be 10% of what it is now. Keep that in mind before you take the plunge and commit to a house or mortgage. Unfortunately, by the time most people realize that it is time to abandon ship, the house values will have plummeted so low that people will have to walk away from their investment and start over again with a bankruptcy and foreclosure on their record making it almost impossible to stand up again for many. Please think and think hard about this situation, I gain no pleasure and a little bit of pain thinking that individuals and families will be homeless and broke!

My stepfather was a developer in Arizona. The laws at that time were that you cannot get approved for any development unless you can insure at least 100 years of water supply. Surprised this development got approval.

The water wars of 2029 were crazy,, but nothing compared to the water wars of 2036

Been here my whole life 30 yrs! This is disheartening! We don’t need this!

If I was gonna buy a house and they told me there was no water for my basic needs, I'd look elsewhere. That's crazy.

We just visited a friend in Golden Valley, his well is going dry. He has water trucked in now and we bring 5 gallon bottles of water per person when we visit.

Changing from a lush, green lawn and water hungry trees over to desert landscaping that does Not need to be watered, as well as requiring pools to be covered when not in use (or removing the pool altogether), are two steps that would make a large dent in our water use. I understand the appeal and even need for green belts. But, all new developments must be designed with water conservation at the forefront. From requiring reclaimed water to be used for large green belts, parks and athletic fields. To offering rebates and even one time grants to households that can show where the money is going, i.e. approved contractors and/or permit style inspections. Our water woes will only get worse as more people move here. We have to start taking steps now or we'll be rationing water during the hottest parts of the year.

Let's hope the new development's HOAs don't require lawns and trees like they do where I live in Tempe.

Stop building no matter how tempting the developers money is to you city officials.

“It’s not nice to fool Mother Nature.” Mother Nature

It's good that the no grass lawn restriction is in place. Another requirement for development should be that any project has to construct systems to retain every drop of rainwater that falls on it be retained within it with no runoff allowed. This should be the first thing that is built or no permits issued for any further building.

These type of development projects really piss me off.

This was a scam from day one. Who didn't see it coming ?

Good to read the comments and the fact that everyone gets what this is all about. How best then to get the politicians to start blocking these destructive criminally driven projects that endanger all of us.

In Arizona developers can build homes without access to water. People who are buying those homes are required to have their water truck in. Good luck....

Developer: "We're building a ghost town. By the time 900,000 people move here, there'll be no water for them. The entire city will revert to desert. But I'll be dead by then."

🤔🤯 WHAT ABOUT PINE/STRAWBERRY THERE OUT OF WATER THESE HOMES ARENT HERE CONTRACTORS NEED MORE RULES THEY WASTE WATER I GUESS MONEY TALKS 😒

Everybody relax, Arizona law says the developer must have a 100 year source of water. The developer says they have a water plan. What could go wrong?

Sorry guys! We're keeping more water for ourselves here in Colorado since we're thirsty too. Good luck! Lol

How are they thinking this will work with NO water. . . . . . . . . .

They should worry about places in Arizona that are already populated, I have an an idea, don't build the development, LoL.

"no canals means no Colorado River water." Yeah, that water is also disappearing.

Good luck with that Arizona.

so many issues stem from real estate tycoons and their disgusting greed !!!

What a dumb idea to build a bunch of homes in the desert and there is absolutely no water

Nobody cares about watering a golf course. ⛳ we got to build a 💧 park.

I grew up in the valley in the 60/70's. Its just a dead extension of a long passed dream. No soul

Look. Dig a trench from the Calif aqueduct to Phoenix and put in a tap valve when no one is looking. See problem solved.

It's just insane to build that large in a desert, that can't really support even the people who live there today.

Who is going to buy that land if there is no water? Even the ? Colorado River is drying up!

Who would live in a place with 5 straight months of 100+ degree temperatures?

This is so ridiculous, why not support the existing cities and towns in the area?

"We need to make significant changes to the way we operate water laws in Arizona" (1:20) What he is really saying is that we're going to build no matter what and let the state deal with the resulting water shortages.

Anyone that invests in this project is insane. Increasing severe drought in the sate of Arizona. Invest money in good solutions. Developers are obviously ignorant or lying.

Stop new projects from building if they do not have sufficient water available. There is no point, and others around them will suffer.

I delivered a load of building materials to a job site in southern California near magic mountain. The person in charge there told me they were building 26,000 new homes there. They just keep building more and more like there's unlimited resources.

I'm continually amazed at the ideocracy of building more and more stuff in a desert that requires water that just isn't there.

Maybe WE the people have to advertise that we are a desert state. That we don't have the type of groundwater other states have. That some areas of our city and state the homes hardly have any water pressure. I know my niece bought a home in San Tan they sometimes have no water pressure. I asked her what did you expect in the desert?

They’re really just trying to save money lmao from a business standpoint he’s trying to provide as much water for as cheap as possible and eliminate the delivery fee along with Putting the water under ground you shouldn’t lie but be honest

Only way change any of this is to vote for leaders who will be responsible.

Think oil is gonna be our ongoing problem? Nope, its gonna be water. Billy Bob Thornton was onto something...

The San Fernando Valley, of Phoenix? 😅😅😅

Funny, there is no more Colorado river water, we will drop below the level 2 triggers this week

Run!!!! Don't look back, Run !!!!!!!!!!!!

You really can't pin this whole water issue all on a single development in Pima County, Az. - not when you consider the fact that the Colorado River already serves 40M ppl in seven different states, plus tens of thousands of acres of agricultural lands.

Sounds like a failure from the start to me but I don't wear expensive suits and ties.