The Importance Of Drought In Southern California

How serious is the problem? Since 1930, the aquifer's water has been reduced by 11 percent (Lewis). The volume of water has decreased because the use of irrigation has increased so much since World War II. In 1949, 2.1 million acres were under irrigation. In 1969, the amount of irrigation land rose to 9.0 million acres; and in 1978, it rose to 13 million acres

What would you do if you lost access to running water? That is what the small town of Porterville, Ca is currently experiencing. Water is an essential part of life, a place without water becomes inhabitable. The drought in California is not affecting everybody the in the same way but it has become a bigger problem the longer it lasts. Finding a solution to such a big problem is not an easy task. If you approach the problem from only one direction you might miss something vital. Limiting water to everybody seems to be a simple solution, but if that happens there are many problems that appear because of that. In the book Think Like a Freak, by Levitt and Dubner they explain why looking at a problem from a different angle will yield unexpected results. Although there is no simple solutions, there are ways to fix the drought and to be better prepared for the next inevitable one.

Envision yourself, about to complete a straightforward, everyday thing such as washing the dishes, suddenly to your surprise there is no water coming out of the faucet. Well for the civilians of East Porterville this is their reality. California has always had very lenient and ineffective groundwater regulations. Today, this has become a major issue, especially with California's severe drought. The regulation of the aquifer is a necessity because cleanliness is a basic human right and by not regulating the groundwater and leaving civilians with no working water, that right is taken away. The right to bathe, wash your hands, and have a working toilet is simply no more. Furthermore there are scientific statements, proving that excessively pumping groundwater will lower the water levels, which will likely lead to the land level sinking as well.

The agriculture industry lost around 1.7 billion dollars, due to not having the proper water allocations for the fields. On the west wide of the valley, half of their 600,000 acres of farmland went fallow, because they didn’t have enough water to farm them. And about 14,500 farm workers in the Central Valley lost their jobs. Without the proper water allocations, farmers will have to continue to pump ground water at extremely high costs, which will force people out of the industry and raise the price of the products produced by the those who can stay in. The impact of the fight over water ripples far beyond those just in agriculture, it affects all of

”Just over 95 percent of the state now faces severe drought conditions and nearly 60 per cent is in exceptional drought” (Source2). A lot of people are dependent on water. If we run out of water we won’t be able to do stuff like take showers, wash dishes, and sometimes go to the restroom. We could not take care of people that are sick and need water. Also cleaning your clothes would be a problem.

Areas prone to flooding can be drained quickly or be unaffected, protecting thousands of families and government property from destruction. On the flip side, water shortages are plaguing states like California causing raging wildfires and public unrest. This system can ensure that people across the nation have a safe constant supply of water.

So it’s not unlike having several straws in a glass, and everyone drinking at the same time, and no one really watching the level.” (Source 3). The farmers are always drilling the groundwater and the citizens get stuck with whatever is left. The farmers are more worried about the economy and their crops. It really isn’t fair if the farmers acquire almost all the water and the people don’t. We need water for almost everything. We can’t just be wearing dirty clothes or be smelling very repetitive everyday. If we also don’t take showers, we can receive illnesses and become really

Another one of the many problems that the severe water drought caused was it has a big impact on farmers, families,business, and many other people in the Sacramento area. In “Addressing California’s Droughts” it states that the harsh drought has been hurting a lot of Sacramento families, farmers, and small business that don’t do so well because of the drought which affects their business majorly (Addressing California’s Droughts).The CBS News explain that the State Department of Water Resources Director Mark Cowin says “there simply is not enough water in the system to meet the needs of the farmers” (Facing Drought,California Will Not Allow Water To The Farmers, Cities). It is also said that without the water on the surface the farmers have to pump water from underground aquifers (Facing Drought,California Will Not Allow Water To The Farmers,Cities). This happens to alter the farmers and their business because without the water for their crops they end up not having any business because they don’t have any crops grown to

How much water do you use on a daily basis? Well, these people are tired of farmers using up all the water because of the fact that when they run out of water, they are unable to take showers and/or use the bathroom. Farmers say that they need way more water to grow the food on their farms. It is obvious to the common person that they should have regulations on water.

Our crops are very important. I think we should give more water to the farmers, only because we need food, and our food comes from our farmers and their land. If the farmers’ have enough water, they can sell what they have left to cities, but i also feel like the cities should have a fair amount too.

In my opinion, there should not be regulation of groundwater. Farmers and citizens, both need water, but most of all farmers. Farmers are the people by which we always have our fresh food and milk. Farmers engaged in agriculture, raising living organisms for food or raw materials, will raise crops to market for consumption. For this reason, they need more groundwater, plus is not just helping them, but as too because we used what they

California is currently in it's fourth year (2012-2015) of one of the state's worst droughts in the past century, according to USA Today newspaper, one that's led to fierce wildfires, water shortages and restrictions, and potentially staggering agricultural losses. On the 28th of August 2014, all of California was considered to be in a drought, the U.S. Drought Monitor stated, and over half of the state was in “exceptional” drought, the worst level. Because of these statistics, the California Governor, Jerry Brown, declared a statewide drought emergency to reduce water usage and regulate restrictions on the use of outdoor water usage. One of the areas in California that would be greatly affected and that would affect many people due to this

California communities should keep tabs on our local well aquifer,before we don’t have any.In my opinion Those farmers will blow the whole state out of aquifer if they could.We should have laws to maintain our left over an

​Do farmers actually need a great deal of water? Although the farmers use a lot, nevertheless, the farmers get at least considering a much greater amount of water to grow crops or do other things. In reality the people or the citizens need the water more than the farmers, but therefore the farmers still need to grow crops for the people. ​I understand there should be laws, I believe people, the farmers should have a limited amount of water. They should get the amount of water they need to grow crops and to do everyday life things., therefore they should laws for the water regulations.

The use of water is not only important in food, survival and cleanliness but in many other areas as well. For example in case of fire, if there is no water, only fate is devastation of resources, properties and lives. Other than this, in case of droughts there can be severe political and social disturbance. Due to droughts, there can be ruthless disagreements over the entitlement of water between groups of people, which may lead to disputes based on ethnicity, cast, religion etc. Since the government is responsible to take care of the recourses of country, there