The United States faces a water crisis as critical as the energy crisis that once dominated headlines. Like the energy crisis, a solution can be found. Pat Mulroy, for many years general manager of the Southern Nevada Water Authority, the lead negotiator on the Colorado River for the State of Nevada, and a Brookings fellow, has gathered a number of practitioners and scholars to show us why we face a crisis caused by climate change and what we can do to alleviate it.

While the focus recently...