Water is a big issue. They need a 100 year plan to develope it. That isn’t easy in the desert.
That’s a joke. most developers count on the same water for their “100 year plan”
Water usage is a major developmental issue for growing large cities in the Third World.
Perhaps a minimal water consumption footprint is and the development of technology to achieve this is a major part of Gate's plan.
It would be if I were him.
The site purchased by Gates is pretty much laying on top of the Central Arizona Project canal so access to huge quantities of water is assured and it has direct freeway access to LA, Las Vegas and San Diego to the west and multiple access routes to the East bound I-10.
Somebody did a lot of thinking to choose this site. My gut is that Gates will pull it off and put the US economy at the forefront of developing the technology and developmental model and economic pathway to allow the Third World to develop it's way to First World economic status without the massive ecological and Health/Welfare problems we see in China and India. .
Risk is limited because CAP was only Phase I on Barry Goldwater's master plan to extend the CAP canal network to the Pacific Ocean and supply Arizona and the entire South West with unlimited quantities of desalinated sea water from the Pacific Ocean.
Much of the necessary infrastructure was set aside for this eventuality 40 years ago.
Recent advancements in desalination technology and recovery of Uranium from sea water for power plants make this technologically feasible in large scale