The thing is cities and towns and irrigation systems in arid regions depend
on water supply from aqueducts, from canals or from drilled wells.

If water tables drop over time, drilled water wells are in trouble.
If water supplied by aqueducts or canals are drained dry, or approaching that dire condition, because of high demand,
somebody or some communities will suffer; or worse, those drying up communities will die.
Yet, there's the strange spectacle in California, among other places with large naturally arid regions, where irrational NIMBY or environmental activists, lawyers and those politicians who cow-tow to them, are hindering solutions to this developing crisis;
and in some cases making it worse.

Oil, coal, gas, uranium, or any technological source of energy, are not necessary for human life, but water obviously is and will always be.