Californians Urged to Conserve Water During Severe Drought

DIANA LI
News Editor
BRIANA THAI
Staff Writer

On Jan. 17, Governor Jerry Brown officially declared a drought state of emergency and urged California residents to take part in the water conservation effort. The California drought has lasted for three years, with the driest year being 2013, and some speculate that it will only worsen over the approaching year.

“We can’t make it rain, but we can be much better prepared for the terrible consequences that California’s drought now threatens, including dramatically less water for our farms and communities and increased fires in both urban and rural areas,” Brown said in a press release, as stated in the NPR.

According to Reuters, the California Farm Water Coalition estimates that the drought could take approximately $5 billion out of farming and other related industries.

“It is definitely a serious problem, but California has been dealing with droughts for a long time,” freshman Stella Lin said. “We could try to put limits on water usage, or find out a way to transport water more efficiently.”

According to Voice of America, crops are not growing as fast as they usually do in this unusually dry weather. Normally, wheat sprouts in five to seven days, but one wheat field in Los Angeles did not sprout for over two weeks.

“Water has been seen as a zero-sum game: agriculture against urban, north against south. We’re going to have to figure out how to play a different game,” President Barack Obama said, according to The New York Times.

The drought that California is currently experiencing is the most severe one to take place in 500 years. The water shortage has citizens trying to deal with problems in winter that usually arise in July.

“[T]he drought will finally make people notice that there is a problem with our water usage. To prevent another drought happening simply [involves changing] the way we use water. We’ve all heard of short showers and using a bucket to wash your car, but what about fixing water pipes or limiting water usage? […] Everyone should be helping out and save water together,” ERAS president Gwen Nguyen said.