As a proud res of AZ I can say with authority that with just a little effort much water could be saved.
I’ve been here over 50 years and have always been amazed at how no one here acts like they live in a desert.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jf8usAesJvo
They built swales in the dry washes during the great depression to hold back water.
A swale is nothing more than a berm to hold back water for it to soak into the ground.
Each drywash should have a water retention berm/swales to retain that water and then, planted with native trees to help retain that water. Need not STOP the water, just retain it long enough to let it leech into the ground.
Instead, they let it run and it evaporates at about 90% of that water back into the air.
My Aunt moved out here in the early 40s and she would talk about all the farming done in the valley and they very seldom were short of water...and that was BEFORE they built all those canals from the lower Colorado river to Phoenix.
Whats happening is with the city, it creates a heat dome.
BTW, they are pumping water INTO the round to recharge the aquifer. The salt content has doubled in the last years in that aquifer water.
The only one talking about this is Lake. She is the ONLY one. As much as I do not trust her, I will vote for her expressly because she has shown concern over the water and water rights issue in this state.
Aside from all that. One of the largest users of electricity is the pumping systems to get that canal water up over the mountains so it can flow down to the valley, and the ones injection water back into the aquifer.