Moving water around a grid like we do with electricity is prohibitively expensive. We need to move people instead. Cities in deserts are just not sustainable.
Cities themselves seem in reasonably good shape. Commercial agriculture in deserts, created in the wake of the fever dreams of the Bureau of Reclamation after two of the wettest decades ever (1900-1920) ... much less so.
Deserts are usable land if you bring water. You can grow food and manufacture things. Are you saying we should just let the deserts be empty and non-productive? Where do the people in the cities get their food from?
