State officials this week are sounding the alarm about the future of water in Kansas as they hold meetings to gather input from the public on a plan that will guide water supply issues for decades to come.

A 46-page “preliminary discussion draft” states: “The writing is on the wall and if we don’t act today, our future is bleak. The Ogallala Aquifer is declining faster than it is recharging. Reservoirs, which are critical water storage structures for much of our state, are filling with sediment.”

At the prompting of Gov. Sam Brownback, state water and agriculture officials have been gathering data and talking to water users for nearly a year.

Now the public meetings, which started Monday in Wichita and will continue Tuesday in western Kansas, will focus on what to do next.

The recent drought has helped focus people’s attentions, said Tracy Streeter, director of the Kansas Water Office. “The drought showed us our vulnerabilities,” he said.

Water officials are hoping to put in place a plan for the next 50 years.

State Rep. Tom Sloan, R-Lawrence, who has been a leader in the Legislature on water issues, said that water needs are crucial to the state’s future development. He said he hoped the plan, once finalized, would provide definite priorities for projects and ways to pay for them.

“Getting a large segment of the population engaged is good, but now the policymakers have to get serious about saying these are the priorities, such as adequate drinking water supplies in the east and irrigation in the west, and here is how we are going to pay for it, and here is the timeline,” Sloan said.

The draft report recommends developing additional water sources, including the possible re-use of treated waste water for irrigation and the completion of an update study on an aqueduct transferring water from the Missouri River to western Kansas.

It also envisions the promotion of irrigation efficiency technologies and growing crops that require less water.

One of the goals of the draft plan is to extend the usable lifetime of the Ogalalla, a freshwater aquifer beneath Kansas and seven other states, by at least 25 years and to reduce sediment intrusion in reservoirs, such as Perry and Clinton lakes.

Under current conditions, the Ogallala Aquifer will be 70 percent depleted within 50 years and Kansas reservoirs will be 40 percent filled with sediment. The draft plan suggests the possibility of modifying flows on the Kansas River to preserve water stored in Perry, Milford, and Tuttle Creek reservoirs.

The final draft will be composed in time for the governor’s water conference in November.

The public input tour went to Wichita and St. John on Monday.

On Tuesday, meetings will be held in Liberal, Garden City and Dighton; on Wednesday, Colby, Stockton and Assaria; Thursday, Manhattan, Washington, and Kansas City; and Friday, Fort Scott.