In 1964, engineers proposed capturing Alaska's rivers and sending them thousands of miles to America's dr

In 1964, the Ralph M Parsons Corporation proposed the North American Water and Power Alliance, or NAWAPA. This massive infrastructure plan aimed to collect surplus river water from Alaska and northwestern Canada. The goal was to transport this water south through the Rocky Mountain Trench to reach arid regions in the United States and northern Mexico.

The project included 369 individual construction sites. Engineers planned a reservoir system that would have altered the natural drainage patterns of an entire continent. During the 1960s, this proposal was discussed in the United States Congress as a project with the same scale and ambition as the space program.

NAWAPA never moved past the planning stages. High costs were a significant hurdle, as the project required roughly 100 billion dollars at the time. Canada also opposed the loss of control over its northern rivers. Environmental concerns grew throughout the 1970s as the public realized the potential damage to wilderness areas and river ecosystems across multiple countries.

Today, the plan serves as a case study for water scarcity. Experts now prioritize water efficiency and regional conservation over singular, continental-scale fixes. The history of NAWAPA illustrates the challenges of attempting to manage natural resources on a massive scale while navigating complex political and ecological landscapes.