I find really curious to tag almonds (we talk about Prunus dulcis, isn't?) as hungry-water crops. They are just the opposite. One of the ancient fruit trees that need less water to trive. They are famous because can survive and growth with just two deep watering episodes each twelve months. Even if you need to wait some years, you will not spend so many water in fact as with other crops.

Alfalfa on the other side needs to be watered constantly, day after day.

This is probably just another local war for the territory. When the best water containers (forests) are burned year after year by delinquents, millions of dollars in free water literally evaporate.