Developed over an 18-month period with input from irrigators in all the Colorado River Basin states, this reportarticulates our principles for smart, effective management of water resources in the Colorado River Basin to help decision-makers in the Basin deal with the harsh realities of current and future water shortages due to drought and over-allocation of water to growing, predominantly municipal, demands. Even with all of the various water users’ perspectives on demand management and other issues in the Colorado River Basin, there is support for the main drivers behind the Alliance’s policy thrust summarized in eight principles. Based on these principles, there are four common recommendations that we believe will be critical to successful drought and water shortage management efforts in the Colorado River Basin.