Los Angeles, March 28 (EFE) .- California Governor Gavin Newsom ordered cities and local water supply agencies on Monday to reduce their use of the liquid and tighten their conservation rules, despite a storm that brought much-needed rain south of the state.
The Democratic politician ordered local supply agencies to put phase two of their contingency plans into action. Although the measures vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, they generally include restrictions on outdoor watering, rebates to buyers who purchase efficient plumbing fixtures, and “wastewater patrols.”
Various local agencies have restrictions in place on the number of days homeowners can water their lawns, and residents can be fined up to $1,000 for repeated violations. In phase two, the fines can be doubled and the irrigation of cemeteries and parks will be reduced.
On March 18, California authorities announced a cut in the volumes of water allocated to cities and farms.
Local agencies that supply water to some 27 million people and 750,000 acres (304,000 hectares) of farmland will receive less liquid from the state’s reservoirs than they have requested for the year.
State officials had originally announced allocations of 15% of the requested volumes – apart from what is needed for critical needs – after a relatively wet December offered hope that the drought, which is headed for its third consecutive year, would moderate. .
But they ultimately cut allocations to 5% after data indicated the January-March 2022 period will be the driest on record in at least a century.
Newsom announced the new measures even as a low-pressure system slammed into Southern California on Monday, bringing much-needed rain and snow to elevated areas, but also the threat of lightning, flash flooding and hail.
The storm marked an unexpectedly wet end to an extremely dry rainy season.
The latest report from the US Drought Monitoring System, issued last Thursday, said almost all of California remains under severe or extreme drought conditions.
Drought in the western United States has contributed to the region’s driest two decades on record in at least 1,200 years, and conditions are expected to continue through 2022 and persist for years.
Researchers have estimated that 42% of drought severity is attributable to climate change caused by human activities.
(c) EFE Agency
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