Las Vegas, the ‘pleasure city’ in the US desert, has decided to limit the size of new swimming pools in homes after severe water shortages.
According to foreign media such as the AP and the New York Post on the 23rd, the Clark County Congress in the US state of Nevada, where Las Vegas belongs, has recently passed a new regulation that sets the maximum area of a new swimming pool in a private house to 56 square meters.
It is about the size of three passenger cars and will be implemented from September 1. This rule does not apply to existing swimming pools.
Residents who violate the rules will be subject to ban.
Clark County has a population of 2.4 million and more than 1,300 new swimming pools are built each year. There are currently 200,000 swimming pools in private homes, the Associated Press reported.
However, resorts and hotel swimming pools are also not affected by this rule, as they already have area restrictions.
The industry sees it as the first case in the United States to impose size restrictions on swimming pools in private homes.
“It was a tough decision,” Clark County Council Chairman Jim Gibson said.
In fact, the United States is suffering from a drought mainly in the western region.
According to satellite images released by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), in the case of the Colorado River Mead, the western ‘lifeline’, the water level this month was 317.60 m, which is close to 50 m lower than 365.76 m in 2000.
This is the lowest level since April 1937, when Lake Mead was filled with water.
The U.S. government expects that the water level in Lake Mead, which supplies water not only to Nevada, but also to seven states including Arizona and California, and northern Mexico, will drop by another 6 meters next summer.
The Southern Nevada Water Authority estimates that the Clark County resolution could save 12 million liters of water in the first year alone and 121 million liters by 2032.
However, the New York Post pointed out that the amount of water being saved is not much considering the amount drawn from Lake Mead (344 billion liters) each year.
Authorities, however, have also decided to require other county legislatures to limit pool area.
The local industry also seems to resist, saying that the effect of limiting the swimming pool area will be insignificant.
An official at a swimming pool company said, “The swimming pool is a part of life for Las Vegas residents,” the AP reported.