Beyond the Mirage: A Look at Our Region's Water Management Successes and Challenges

Sharon Megdal will draw on her 25+ years of experience working on our region’s water issues to provide an overview of both our successes and challenges.  One of the challenges we face is that people don’t show much interest in water management so long as water comes out the tap cleanly and reliably.  How do we educate and engage the public when things are good in order to make sure we have the water future we want?  This question was the foundation of the two-part project “Beyond the Mirage”.  Beyond the Mirage is both a documentary about water in the Colorado River Basin and a dynamic platform for learning.  The project involved filmmaker Cody Sheehy and his team, UA Water Resources Research Center personnel, and Arizona Public Media.  It involved filming throughout the Lower Colorado River Basin and in Israel.  This presentation will include some film clips from Beyond the Mirage and offer insights from Sharon’s locally, national, and international work, including her responsibilities as a member of the Central Arizona Project board.  Because she will have only 20 minutes to speak and answer questions about a very big topic, she is happy to accept questions and comments in advance by email (smegdal@email.arizona.edu).

Sharon B. Megdal is Director of The University of Arizona Water Resources Research Center (WRRC), an Extension and research unit in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. Her work focuses on water policy and management, on which she writes and frequently speaks.  The geographic scope of Dr. Megdal’s work ranges from local to international. She is the lead editor of Shared Borders, Shared Waters: Israeli-Palestinian and Colorado River Basin Water Challenges and a book on water recharge and has authored many other publications.

 

Current professional service activities include the following: President-Elect of the board of the Universities Council on Water Resources (UCOWR); Board Member, International Arid Lands Consortium; and Board Member, American Water Resources Association (AWRA).  She is co-chairing an international conference on water, which will be held in Tel Aviv, Israel in September 2017.

 

Sharon also is an elected public official.  In November 2014, she was elected by the residents of Pima County, Arizona to a second six-year term on Board of Directors for the Central Arizona Water Conservation, also known as the Central Arizona Project (CAP).  Sharon has been elected by her colleagues to serve as Secretary of the Board.  Sharon has served on numerous Arizona boards and commissions, including the Arizona Corporation Commission, the State Transportation Board and the Arizona Medical Board.  She holds a Ph.D. degree in Economics from Princeton University and an A. B. degree in Economics from Douglass College of Rutgers University.