Water restrictions began Wednesday for 6 million residents in Southern California, as the state enters its third year of severe drought and what water officials say is the state’s driest year on record.
The Los Angeles Times reports that residents will be assigned watering days based on their addresses and limited to eight minutes per day—or a maximum of 15 if they have water-conserving sprinkler nozzles. Authorities say patrols will be stepped up and repeat violators will be fined.
The water conservation rules; the strictest in the state, was set by the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, one of the largest water distributors in the country. The goal is to slash water use by 35 percent as the state enters its third straight year of drought.
“The amount of water we have available to us right now is not going to be enough to carry us through the entire year unless we do something different,” MWD general manager Adel Hagekhalil said at a news conference in April, reports CNBC News. “This is a wake-up call.”
Watersheds have been getting below-average precipitation since October 2019, and “despite substantial precipitation in October and December 2021, precipitation in Northern California from January through March 2022 fell to the driest levels on record,” MWD wrote in April.
About 27 million Californians get their water from the State Water Project, “a multi-purpose water storage and delivery system that extends more than 705 miles — two-thirds the length of California,” according to the California Department of Water Resources.
The megadrought in the U.S. West has produced the driest two decades in the region in at least 1,200 years. Conditions are likely to continue through 2022 and could persist for years.
Researchers publishing in the journal Nature Climate Change have estimated that 42 percent of the drought’s severity is attributable to human-caused climate change.
Many residents have already abandoned green lawns for more drought-tolerant landscaping. Authorities are also urging Californians to take shorter showers and have urged people to use recycled water for outside projects, and only run dishwashers and washing machines when full.
