On April 1, Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. issued an order that tells the State Water Resources Board to start implementing water reductions. Just only one year ago California went into a drought state of emergency.

According to the government press release some of the reductions being implemented are: replacement of 50 million square feet of lawn with drought tolerant landscaping, the creation of a statewide rebate program where they pay you to replace old appliance with newer water and energy efficient ones, the prohibition of new homes and developments from irrigating with drinkable water unless water efficient drip irrigation systems are used and the banning of watering ornamental grass in public areas.

The government is also increasing enforcement of these water policies. They are calling on local water agencies to restructure pricing in order to discourage water waste. Also, they are mandating that agricultural water users will have to report water use information to state regulators in order to enforce unreasonable use of water. Some other reforms are the updating of toilets, faucets and outdoor landscaping in residential communities, and taking action if these new standards are ignored. The final enforcement policy is that  local water suppliers must make monthly reports of water usage, enforcement and conservation actions.

The government is also trying to incentivize new water efficient technology through the California Energy Commission.

“Ever since this drought has started I’ve not only started to take super short showers, like 3 minutes tops, but I also have started not to water the lawn as much. This has caused them to brown, but that is okay because I want to save as much water as possible.” Trinity Downs said.

Another student on campus has taken initiative. Senior, Marcel Plomteaux, has also started taking shorter showers along with other reductions. When asked about any future solutions,

“I do not see any solutions in the future. California will just keep getting drier and drier until it becomes a desolate wasteland.” Marcel Plomteaux said.

According to recent figures, Californian cities and towns only dropped their water consumption by 2.8 percent. This is the lowest number ever recorded since they started tracking in the July of 2014.

“Today’s announced February results are very disturbing and provides even more support for the Governor’s call for an immediate 25 percent mandatory reduction in urban water use statewide. I know many communities in the state stepped up since last summer and dramatically conserved water. But not enough communities in the state have saved enough water. Beginning today, to assure their own water security as well as help others, communities should restrict outdoor irrigation to the bare minimum. If we dramatically stop watering out-of-doors, we should be able to reduce water use by 25 percent or more in the next several months since an average of 50 percent of urban water use is used outdoors,” State Water Board Chair Felicia Marcus said.

According to the press release,  400 water suppliers have reported that the percent of water being conserved by customers has dropped from 8 percent to 2.8 percent from January to February.

It is critical for all of California to start saving water, some ways can be found on SaveOurWater.com.

by ANDREI BUADO