Is Texas running out of water? What most people get wrong about the state’s growing water crisis
October 21, 2026
In water management, there’s this thing known as “day zero.” It refers to the point where a city or region’s water supply reaches critically low levels, six months away from demand exceeding supply. Just this year, one Texas city was projected to become the first in the U.S. to reach that point: Corpus Christi.
The crisis is not only the result of drought and high heat. Corpus Christi is just one extreme example of a problem decades in the making. Water shortages do not often get attention from state lawmakers, and fights over resources can pit rural landowners against cities.
All of it has left a lot of Texans asking how close the state is to running out of water, and is there any way to stop it?