The numbers don't lie, and the story they tell poses a region's greatest challenge. While as much as 85 percent of the water in the basin of the Rio Grande River irrigates crops, the area's population and water demands are growing-as does the threat of water shortages. That risk drove a unique effort by the Texas Water Resources Institute and other public and private participants to preserve this precious resource.

Begun in 2001 as a program called the Rio Grande Basin Initiative, participants include 19 state and federal agencies, four universities, and 31 irrigation districts, covering all the cities and colonias in the entire basin. This diverse coalition works together on nine key activities aimed at efficiently using current water resources and creating new water supplies. In addition to hands-on training with farmers in both the United States and Mexico, members work to improve irrigation district infrastructure, canal liners, and private- and commercial-irrigation methods. Participants also have educated and increased public awareness by publishing more than 530 reports, presentations, and articles to help guide water use in the Rio Grande Basin.

The Initiative also targeted efficient use of household water through conservation training, such as a study, in which educators worked with families in nine counties to help them save water. Through a combination of efforts ranging from training to the installation of low-flow toilets, water use in each of these homes dropped by as much as 3,000 gallons per month.

Since 2002, these efforts have saved an estimated 4 million acre-feet of water. To date, the Rio Grande Basin Initiative has received $25 million to underwrite the ambitious project and the hope is to meet conservation goals by 2010. In this hot and arid region, a steady supply of fresh water is the only way to ensure a prosperous future.