ABSTRACT
In 1977, President Jimmy Carter undertook an assault on the "water establishment" in the United States with his objection to nineteen projects for which funding of $289 million was requested in the 1978 fiscal year budget. Conservation of water has been a major element in the ideology of Western development. Given its widespread aridity, the focus has been on both the avoidance of waste, but also on the "development" of water which has usually involved major physical structures for storage and distribution. The notion of conservation has an implicitly positive political valence when applied to natural resources and particularly when applied to water. In the western part of the United States, where aridity is the normal condition of life, water conservation--loosely construed--has been a continuing element in water management programs. Specifically, with respect to water development, federally supported projects would have to stress water conservation and appropriate non-structural measures.
