It's not a drought. The southwest is being aridified: previous levels of rainfall are not coming back. It's a drought only in the sense that it is a permanent drought.

The water problem is political, legal, sociological, and technological. Jurisdictions do not want to share water. People want their green lawns and manicured golf courses. They don't want to pay for desalinized water from that big pond off the coast of California, and that desalinized water has its own issues with power requirements and waste byproducts.

Nevertheless, adjustments will be made. By necessity, people in the southwest will learn to live with less water and more expensive water. But it won't be easy.