After months of drought plan negotiations and as the deadline for Arizona to produce an internal agreement on water reductions nears, the state’s water interests have nothing to show for their efforts yet.

The Arizona Supreme Court has given the go-ahead to new development in and around Sierra Vista even if it could dry up the San Pedro River -- and even if it turns out that the home buyers later end up with nothing but sand coming out of their faucets.

The head of the state’s water agency insists that, contrary to the conclusions of a legislative attorney, lawmakers can authorize his department to “forbear” the use of water from the Colorado River.

Despite months spent hashing out water proposals behind closed doors, the governor doesn’t like what he sees in legislation meant to overhaul water policy.

After 44 years, the adjudication of water rights in Arizona is still far from being resolved, and water policy experts say that resolving these competing claims is essential to providing certainty about water rights.

The Central Arizona Project has paid more than $2.5 million for lobbyists in Arizona and Washington D.C. over the past five years, an analysis of the agency’s lobbying contracts shows.

With Republican Gov. Doug Ducey convening water giants into meetings this summer, it’s become all the more apparent that major water players in Arizona, namely the state’s water department and its canal system, the Central Arizona Project, are at odds.

The Central Arizona Project tried to strike a deal to sell water to California for $18 million during the 2015 drought, which the state claims underscores the need for reforms to the water delivery system’s operations.

Arizona water bigwigs are meeting with the governor’s staff in an attempt to unify the state’s voice on water issues and come up with new ideas to conserve and manage water.

If recent climatic experience has taught Arizonans anything, it is that the specter of drought is an ever-present proposition. Droughts of 30- or even 50-year durations are not unknown phenomena. So, even when Mother Nature blesses us with a wet year, like this year, water in the Southwest remains a scarce resource that must be managed cooperatively with a long-term view, if we are to assure that water remains available and abundant for the millions of people who rely on it.