SBS program Dateline explores water wars in California.
SBS explores the serious threat of water running out in California on Tuesday night’s episode of Dateline.
As the city started to populate in the 19th century, it started to outgrow its water supply, and started to divert some water from Owens Valley.
Native American Kathy Bancroft tells the program her ancestors had been buried deep in the valley and decades of water mismanagement and the drought had uncovered the dead.
Dateline reveals 100 years ago Owens Valley’s underground river was diverted to LA, using a 300km aqueduct.
It has helped LA thrive but those in Owens Valley are feeling the struggle.
She saw her backyard completely dry up four years ago.
“It’s easy to say ‘let’s move’ but when you realise that you’re stuck here with a property that in the future has no value because you can’t be selling a property without a well.” Dateline reports water scarcity could be a problem across the world, with one expert suggesting two thirds of the world population will live in conditions of water scarcity in just eight years.
A UN water scarcity report in 2014 also claimed there would likely be armed conflict in our lifetime in relation to water scarcity.
Watch the full Dateline report, California Water Wars, on Tuesday August 1 at 9.30pm on SBS.