There is plenty of water for people in those areas, not enough for plants. For comparison the 800 mile Alasca pipeline moves 10times as much oil per day as all of the worlds declination plays put together. Or the equivent of about 1 million peoples daily water use. Scaling it up and arizona could import 100% of it's water usage for less than 1% of it's GDP. It's not free but less than the heating costs in many northern states.
In the end it's just a question of how many thousandth of a cent your willing to pay per gallon and you can have water anywhere you want. Agriculture happens to need a fucktun of the stuff but food is easy to move and land in those areas is cheap. So, it actually is reasonable for people to build on cheap land out there simply because it's not useful for anything else.
PS: Shure, we are rapidly draining a few aquifers but there is little point in leaving the water there in the first place.
Looking at the price of importing water is misleading because its not priced properly anywhere in the U.S. And training those aquifers is precisely why places like Arizona aren't sustainable.
In the end it's just a question of how many thousandth of a cent your willing to pay per gallon and you can have water anywhere you want. Agriculture happens to need a fucktun of the stuff but food is easy to move and land in those areas is cheap. So, it actually is reasonable for people to build on cheap land out there simply because it's not useful for anything else.
PS: Shure, we are rapidly draining a few aquifers but there is little point in leaving the water there in the first place.