The War on Water in California
By: Dean Riley
September 27th, 2015
Water Magazine
Singing in the shower is one of the best things. It helps clear my mind and gets me in a good mood. If you could sing two songs what would it be? My songs would be “Beat It” by Michael Jackson and “Summer” by Calvin Harris. Why do I ask this? Because two songs needs to be our time limit when showering.
If you haven’t heard, California is in the worst drought it has ever experienced on record. Water storage is at an all time low. It is estimated that there is only one year left of water available, and the situation is not getting any better. California needs to take action and institute laws that generate greater water conservation for the state.
California is known for having all of its large cities, beautiful beaches, and its home to the Kardashians. It’s a place made of money with the 10th largest economy in the world. But something that comes natural to it and is given to us by the earth is running scarce, water. Recently, California has consequently declared a state of emergency and is taking serious action, largely by placing regulations on businesses water use. But are these measures actually helping? Sorta. California has lowered its water consumption by 15% in the past year.
All the talk now is about the El Nino and the high hopes Californians have. This El Nino is supposed to be the strongest on record, helping to give this thirst quenching state a hopeful drink. But California’s also suffering from one of the worst fire seasons it has seen on record. Already hundreds of thousands of acres have scorched this year, and issues from this drought continue to worsen. So what are we going to do about all these problems? It’s time to go to war with water.
Most Americans believe we are the strongest country on our planet. We have gone to countless wars and have created some of the deadliest weapons ever known to mankind. We can now fly missions and attack and bomb our enemies from the comfort of an office with our drones. For a country that has the all this power and ability to fight wars, why not declare a new war? And no, I am not talking a war with North Korea. This new war will be fought on the home front, and we will have to give our entire might to protect our land and resources. This is the War on Water, and drought will be our tough enemy.
If we are going to war on water, we need to take serious action. California Governor Jerry Brown right now is attempting to lead the state out of its horrific problem with strict rules and sanctions and is aiming to lower California’s water consumption to twenty-five percent by the end of the year. Twenty-five percent is good and all but only time will tell if we can win this war. For the agricultural businesses, Brown also is implementing rules that require farmers to report their water usage to the state in order to identify who’s using too much water. The governor also is implementing rules for public space, including medians of grass can’t be watered nor can cemeteries to limit water usage. Restrictions are also being applied to landscaping and lawns, largely affecting golf courses. In addition Brown plans to replace 50 million square feet of lawn in the state with drought resistant landscaping and give a rebate to consumers to replace their appliances in order for better water conservation. Although Governor Brown is trying to limit the states water use, his plan is not sufficient enough to handle the states problem. The reason drought continues is because Californians have proved that they do not possess the self-discipline to regulate their own water consumption habits. While such plans are being carried out, these restrictions are not enough for the severity of this drought. California needs a new plan of attack.
When attacking in war, a strategy is developed, so lets develop a new strategy. First look at the residents as individuals. Although the state has all these regulations, people continue to irresponsibly use water. This is a problem and why more invasive governmental regulations are needed, so they can’t help but have to save water. We need more intervention from the government on individual’s daily habits. Some possibilities of what this could entail will benefit California and its residents.
People should have a timer on their showers only allowing six minutes of shower time. The state should also shut down anyone looking to fill their pool and approve planting of only drought resistant plants. We also need a water security force to go from house to house in the entire state and educated individuals on how they can conserve water. This blitzkrieg needs to move quickly and attack now. We need to develop the ideas and technology that will allow us to never worry about water again, but it all starts with California’s citizens.
