The US Interior Department's Bureau of Reclamation issued a draft analysis on Tuesday, which warns about the dire outcomes of the Colorado River crisis. The report offers two scenarios for how to reduce water usage should Lakes Mead and Powell’s levels continue to drop. The river provides water and electricity to more than 40 million people across seven states in the West of the US, and the water shortages and overuse combined with the years of drought accelerated by climate change culminated in the depletion of the nation's largest reservoirs over the last decades. According to the latest scenarios, farms, tribes and states could be required to reduce their usage of Colorado River water by almost 2.1 million acre-feet in 2024. This huge amount of water is equivalent to what the entire state of Arizona was projected to use this year from the river. The Interior Department is due to make a final decision on the cuts, and when and how they will be implemented this summer.