By Ian James, Geoff Hing | Arizona Republic
CIBOLA — In fields on the Arizona-California border, farmers draw water from the nearby Colorado River to grow alfalfa, irrigating crops as they have for decades.
That could change soon. An investment company has purchased nearly 500 acres of farmland and wants to strip it of its water and send it 200 miles across the desert to a Phoenix suburb, where developers plan to build thousands of new houses.
Similar deals could follow as the demand for water in the growing Southwest outpaces the dwindling supply. Investors have begun buying thousands of acres of farmland to acquire the water, which they view as an increasingly valuable asset.
