MEXICO: extended strict controls on water usage Tuesday, a few days after a NASA scientist warned that the state currently has only one year of water left in its reservoirs.
William La Jeunesse reported today on the expanded rules, which come with the state in its fourth year of drought. Winter is now coming to an end without many significant storms or snowfall to help the situation.
He called the new regulations “baby steps.” For instance, restaurants won’t give you a glass of water unless you request it and lawn watering is restricted to two days a week.
The current egulations have not really been enforced in Los Angeles, however. The city of 4 million fined just two people for wasting water in 2014, the driest year on record for the state.
Officials say the restrictions may need to be tightened significantly in the summer, including bans on lawn watering and car washing and possibly rewarding residents for turning in neighbors who aren’t obeying the rules.
One expert told La Jeunesse that the voluntary restrictions “have not gotten us where we need to get.”
Many farmers aren’t getting enough water, so they’re drilling deeper for ground water, depleting wells in local communities.
George Kostryko of the state water control board said some areas could soon be only 60 days away from losing their water supply.
In an L.A. Times op-ed, Jay Famiglietti, a senior water scientist at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, painted an extremely dire picture.
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