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In California, water use increased by almost 19% during March 2022 despite the request of the state government to conserve the vital liquid.
California residents used more water in March than in any month since 2015, state officials announced this Tuesday.
Water use is up in California, despite conservation pleas amid the state’s worsening drought. Figures show water usage jumped almost 26% in March, one of the driest months on record. https://t.co/xAWXfeVowD
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The last summer, Governor Gavin Newsom asked residents to voluntarily decrease their water use by 10%, also asked residents of the state to water their gardens less frequently, using dishwashers less, as well as installing more efficient appliances.
California’s conservation rate increased gradually benefited by some intense storms during fall and early winter, which reduced water demand.
However, the first three months of 2022 have been some of the driest ever recorded.
Water consumption ua rose slightly in January and February before rising during March, compared to figures from 2020.
Since July, California has decreased its overall water use by just 3.7% .
“People are irrigating at a time when they normally don’t have to do it. People have been watering more and more and trying to make up for the lack of rain,” said California State Water Board Conservation Program Manager Charlotte Ely.
“San Francisco Bay Area water use increased by only 2.5% compared to the South Coast region, where we saw March use of 2022 increased by approximately one 26% since March 2020”, added Ely.
The specialists recommended changing the lawn for plants with low water consumption that can be perfect habitats for bees and butterflies, whose populations are in decline.
This Tuesday, the Mayor of the City of Los Angeles, Eric Garcetti, announced that as of June 1, outdoor watering was restricted to two days a week.
E n Los Angeles, irrigation represents the 35% of city water use.
At the end of the month, the state water board will review new policies, and an emergency regulation plan could be adopted that would ban irrigation of commercial industrial lawns non-functional, in addition to moving California retail urban water providers to Stage 2 of the water contingency plan.
Upon this news, Newsom committed to spend $26 additional million dollars in water conservation programs, in addition to the $190 million dollars proposed in January.
A series of storms during April improved things slightly from March. However, most California reservoirs are well below their historical averages.
These reservoirs depend on water that runs down from the mountains to fill up during the dry summer months, but As of April 1, snowpacks throughout California were at just 27% of its historical average.
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