A new plan predicts that Albuquerque's water use will rise 21 percent by 2024, as population growth outstrips conservation efforts.
The Albuquerque Journal reports that the new long-range plan was approved Wednesday by the Albuquerque Bernalillo County Water Utility board.
The new conservation strategy is aimed at reducing per-capita consumption to 135 gallons per person per day by 2024, a 9 percent reduction from the current 148 gallons. But Katherine Yuhas, the water utility's conservation officer, says because population in the utility's service area projected to grow from the current 640,000 to 810,000 by 2024, overall water use is expected to rise.
Albuquerque in the past five years has begun shifting to water imported from the Colorado River Basin in an effort to limit what water managers concluded was unsustainable use of groundwater.
Copyright 2013 The Associated Press.