Paul Ramirez (54), waters his front lawn in Boyle Heights California on May 11, 2022 as Bandit, his 2 year-old Yorkshire Terrier, jumps for joy.
Mel Melcon | Los Angeles Times | Getty Images
Officials are trying to conserve water in severe drought situations by imposing water restrictions on outdoor water use for more than 6,000,000 residents of Southern California.
The Metropolitan Water District, one of the most important water distributors in America, set the conservation rules.
Households are now forbidden from watering their lawns more than once a week in many jurisdictions. As the state enters its third year of drought, the goal is to reduce water consumption by 35%.
After California officials announced that State Water Project allocations would be reduced from 15% to 5 % of normal due to decreasing reservoir levels and reduced snowpack, the rules are now in effect. California’s two largest reservoirs have already dropped to critically low levels, and the state this year experienced its driest January, February and March on record.
Adel Hagekhalil from MWD stated at a news conference that “the amount of water we currently have is not enough to last us through the entire year” in April. “This is a wakeup call.”
The megadrought in the U.S. West has produced the driest two decades in the region in at least 1,200 years. These conditions are expected to persist through 2022, and possibly for many years. Researchers publishing in the journal Nature Climate Change have estimated that 42% of the drought’s severity is attributable to human-caused climate change.
Reducing outdoor water use is an effective way to conserve water as the summer months approach. California’s half-millionths of urban water use is done through landscape watering.
Former Gov. Jerry Brown imposed a 25% water cut, which was followed by many residents switching to drought-tolerant landscaping.
Gov. Gavin Newsom has not imposed such mandatory restrictions, but requested last year that residents curb household water consumption by 15%. Officials have also urged residents to use recycled water for projects outside of their homes, take shorter showers, and not run washing machines and dishwashers when they are full.
On September 5, 2021, Oroville, California shows a nearly empty Lake Oroville from the sky.
Josh Edelson | AFP | Getty Images
However, the measures have not succeeded in getting people to conserve water. According to data from the State Water Resources Control Board, the average state urban water consumption rose by nearly 19% between March 2020 and March 2019.
Officials have warned that if water use doesn’t decline significantly — or if drought conditions grow even more severe — they could impose a full outdoor watering ban as soon as September.
Newsom warned California that it could be forced into mandatory cuts during a meeting with the leaders of California’s largest urban water providers last week.
Newsom released a statement saying that Californians had made important changes since the drought. However, we have seen an increase in water use as we move into summer months. “We all need to be more careful about making every drop count.
Source: cnbc
