Water sustains California. Although it is the nation’s most populous state with the 6th largest economy in the world, it is also an arid state with an average annual rainfall of 23”. California must actively manage its water not only for its population, agriculture, and industry but also to preserve its environment. The Golden State will always be inextricably linked to its water resources.
Water continues to shape the state’s development and no resource is as vital to California’s urban centers, farms, industry, recreation, scenic beauty, and environmental preservation. But California’s relationship to water is also one that continues to generate controversy. Nearly 75% of the available surface water originates in the northern third of the state, while 80% of the demand occurs in the southern two-thirds of the state and the highest demand for water is during the dry summer months when there is little natural precipitation or snowmelt. California’s climate also leads to extended periods of drought and major floods.
California is experiencing a water crisis and yes, part of the problem is overpopulation. Specifically, the population has grown from 10 million people in 1950 to almost 40 million people today, making it necessary to move water over long distances to where people live and work. Close to two-thirds of the state’s population is bunched in a few water-dependent coastal counties, but only 15% of California’s water consumption is residential. Most of it is used outdoors, to make the desert bloom and hillside pools sparkle and shimmer. People also drink and bathe in the potable water in rivers or aquifers. Then there is industrial water which cools, cleans, and lubricates and wastewater that needs treatment. Both farm and non-farm water need to be free of pesticides, fertilizer run-off, brine, and mineral salts.
To match the rising need for food, crops are planted in bulk which requires #water. From Red Bluff to Bakersfield, big corporate farms and branded cooperatives such as Diamond Walnuts, Sun-Maid Raisins, and Sunkist Citrus, are global farm operations that benefit from preferential water agreements. Water collection areas, such as forests, are continually being destroyed by deforestation, often due to rapid population increase. This causes a domino effect resulting in the water shortage.
In California, the inability to prevent this crisis reflects major weaknesses in California’s current system for governing and funding #watermanagement. Most of the state’s water management is highly decentralized, with many hundreds of local and regional agencies responsible for water supply, wastewater treatment, flood control, and related land-use decisions. This system has many advantages, but has often resulted in uncoordinated, fragmented decisions including chronic groundwater overdraft, impairment of watersheds by a wide range of pollutants, ineffective ecosystem management, and rapid development in poorly protected floodplains. Similar coordination failures among state and federal agencies have led to inefficiencies in reservoir operations, ecosystem management, and water marketing, among others.
The government, especially those that govern by dictatorship, may restrict citizens from accessing certain water sources. The war of the future, according to scientists and political experts, will not focus on resources such as oil, but on water.
Overpopulation is one of the contributing factors to California’s water shortage, and it is still rapidly increasing. However, the State Government failed to take ownership and control of the problem. They could have informed the local agencies and the citizens, allowing them to contribute to saving water and using their resources properly.
The primary problem with California's water woes are government incompetence.
