Drought in California forces to reduce water consumption

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Southern California’s largest water provider took an unprecedented step Tuesday, requiring some 6 million people to limit outdoor watering to one day a week as a drought continues. ravaging the state.

The board of directors of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California declared a water shortage emergency and required cities and agencies they serve to implement the cut by June 1 and enforce it or face heavy fines.

“We don’t have enough water supplies right now to meet the usual demand. There is no water,” Metropolitan Water District spokeswoman Rebecca Kimitch said. “This is an unprecedented matter. We’ve never done anything like this.”

The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California uses water from the Colorado River and the State Water Project to supply 26 public water agencies, which distribute it to 19 million people, or 40% of the state’s population. .

But unprecedented droughts have strained the system, lowering reservoir levels, and the State Water Project, which gets its water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, estimates it will only be able to supply about 5% this year. from your usual assignment.

The months of January, February and March this year have been the driest in the state’s history, in terms of rainfall and snowfall, Kimitch said.

According to the Metropolitan Water District, the 2020 and 2021 water years were the least rainy on record for two consecutive years. In addition, Lake Oroville, the main reservoir for the State Water Project, last year reached its lowest point since it was filled in the 1970s.

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