Pat Mulroy: The SNWA’s powerful chief has brought together local water agencies under one unified umbrella, has launched conservation efforts and is now overseeing the audacious plan to pump water from rural Nevada, hundreds of miles away.

Tracy Taylor: State engineer, who decides whom to award water rights to and how much water to give them.

Uncle Sam: Through the federal Bureau of Reclamation, which manages the Colorado River system and helps plan for the long-term allocation of its resources.

Local municipalities:Sounds unglamorous, but it’s local governments, and their planning and zoning departments, that help set new regulations, such as the one forbidding new homes to have traditional landscaping in their front yards. “They’re the people who do the nuts and bolts on development,” says Wardlaw.

You: Yup. Congratulations. Whether it’s local nurseries selling low-water plants or families pulling out their grass or, at least, turning the water off when they brush their teeth, ultimately we are the most important players in town. Wardlaw: “The actions of two million people every day have a major effect.”

Read more about the state of water in Nevada in Water wise.