California water officials make a plea for water conservation efforts as the state enters its third year in a drought.
The state is in its second acute drought in less than a decade. Scientists said that the U.S west is experiencing the worst megadrought in 1,200 years, worsened by climate change.
Despite this, California’s water used 2.6 percent more water in January compared to before the drought emergency was declared, according to new data from urban areas. The data shows that Gov. Gavin Newsom’s initiatives for a 15 percent voluntary cutback in water use are not effectively reaching people in cities and towns.
Newsom's pleas for water conservation are not the first. Several years into the last devastating drought in 2015, Gov. Jerry Brown authorized state regulators to order reductions from water suppliers to conserve 25 percent more water across California.
Natural Resources Secretary Wade Crowfoot said recently that local or regional governments might issue their own orders.
“California is well into its third year of drought and with winter ending in a very dry way, water conditions will get more challenging in coming months,” Crowfoot said in a media briefing at the Theodore Payne Foundation for Wildflowers & Native Plants. “We all need to do our part to conserve water and use it as efficiently as possible—and make this our way of life. The state’s Save Our Water campaign can help Californians makes these changes with updated information and easy and actionable water-saving tips.”
According to Crawfoot, conservation is particularly critical in communities that rely on water from the State Water Project (SWP), including parts of Los Angeles, Ventura, and San Bernardino counties that limited local supplies and cannot access water from the Colorado River. The state recently announced it is lowering the SWP allocation this year to 5 percent of requested supplies.
The public is asked to immediately reduce water by irrigating lawns less often, and in the early to prevent evaporation. Residents and businesses are advised to save water by fixing leaky sprinkler heads and making adjustments to avoid over-spraying sidewalks to save water.
Residents of Southern California are encouraged to make long-term changes in the name of water conservation, such as removing grass and replacing it with water-efficient and native plants, which use 85 percent less water than grass.
