Water Scarcity

California’s continuous drought not only affects California, but essentially impacts the entire food system. Could you imagine an entire state unable to contribute to the growing demands of a thriving economy? As California enters its fifth year of drought the consequences of an ever depleting natural resource, water, continues to negatively impact landscape plants, agricultural production, wildlife, and the economy. The lack of water in California has the potential to have a devastating effect on an ever thriving economy.

In recent years there has been so much talk and propaganda regarding the ongoing in drought in California. Scholars argue when the exact start of the drought was, but I believe that it started in 2007 because rainfall has fallen below average since then. Droughts occur because the quantity demanded of water does not meet the quantity supplied which leads to a shortage. The drought has impacted not only everyone in the state, but also the ecosystem. While there are many reasons why there is a shortage of water in California; today I will touch on three of them, the lack of precipitation, increase in population, and wasteful water use. In my research I will report on these three reasons and look at possible solutions for this most recent dismal event in California.

Due to the lack of rain in the past few years, and particularly in the last few months, California faces severe drought. This is the worst drought in more than one hundred years. The impact of California drought affects community, agriculture, organic ranchers, and dairy farmers. Because of these facts, the United States must rethink the way it uses water. Californians alone are asked to reduce their water usage by twenty percent to prevent water waste.

The California water drought has been declared a crisis by the governor of California. 2013 was the driest year on record, and California could be running out of water. Californians should be water wise, and their use, or no use, of water will have an enormous impact on this drought. They can use the techniques published in a recent Time article called, 5 Ways to Bust California’s Drought, to reduce their water use. Landscape techniques, alternate water sources, and the personal conservation of water can reduce the use of water, and can have a positive change on this water crisis.

Californians have been struggling with trying to conserve our water for over three years. Twenty-Thirteen was our driest year in many populated areas in California, and it doesn't seem to be changing any time soon, unless we all act now. In twenty-thirteen, Los Angeles and Sacramento, went down on record as the driest two cities in California. A drought is when area of land scarcely drop rain. Droughts are caused from climate changes and lack of precipitation, resulting in a shortage of water. Water is vital for all living things and is the essential component of all life. This ongoing drought has drastically affected the state of California. The long-term change in climate is truly affecting California. Our water reservations are lower than

Currently California is facing a water shortage. The issue has been addressed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in February. He called for all state agencies to find the way to help in the statewide water shortage. This is California’s third consecutive year of drought and last spring and summer was the worst of the season because it had the lowest amount of water recorded and California’s reservoirs were at their lowest point as well which did not help in the water shortage. Many agencies have been acquired to find possible solutions to the water shortage, the Department of Water Resources has been directed to find solutions to the problem as well as asking people to conserve water.

In recent years, California’s water shortage has been an issue and in 2014 an alarming driest historical year has impacted the state in different ways. Because of the lack of rainfall and snow, California’s reservoirs are running insignificant water basins below their capacity. While water shortages are experienced slowly and throughout a length of time, the harshest impacts are noticeable in areas that produce California’s food where wells are used as resource for water in agriculture, and residential areas. Though, most agree the drought is an issue some do not agree. To understand the circumstances, this paper will look at the drought’s impacts on California’s economy for agricultural, famers, and consumers. Also, this written work will examine the environmental consequences of surface water obtainability, and the areas that have encounter the most devastating affects. For most, this paper will examine the allocations of the governor’s drought declaration, and the strategies used by residents to conserver water.

California is going on a four-year drought, having many devastating implications that are being felt by everyone in the state. The population hit the hardest has been the farmers of California. California, being economically driven by its agricultural production, is losing hundreds of thousands of jobs every year due to the lack of water. Farmers’ use 80% of water the state produces, directly influencing their production (Mieszkowski, 2014). The country heavily relies on California for much of its produce such as tomatoes, nuts, avocados, strawberries, broccoli, grapes and various others (Cooley et al. 2015). In 2014, harvested acreage was 6.9 million acres, the lowest it has been for the past 15 years. Farmers are now being forced to use significantly less land then before, but also ditch old irrigation techniques and implement new techniques to better conserve water; maximizing production as much as possible in order to combat the drought.

California is experiencing its worst drought in history. Throughout the state you can see lakes, rivers and streams drying up and leaving farmers and communities without water. Although it seems that science and global weather patterns caused this severe drought, however irresponsible usage of water paired with state laws on water rights and population growth have all played a role in prolonging this drought that is going into its eighth year. California’s central valley is the world leader in Agriculture, however the valley is also the perfect area for a drought to occur due to climate change. California is in a state of emergency, with the help of reduced water usage along with the state and federal government need to aid in lessening

In 2014, Governor Brown issued an affirmation declaring a California drought state of emergency actively calling “all Californians to conserve water in every way possible (“Governor Brown Declares Drought State of Emergency”).” In addition, California state water officials said that “California rivers and reservoirs are below their record lows”. This problem not only pertains to the past but carries as an ongoing issue in California. California remains the top state in water consumption, taking up 11% of the United State’s water supply (Koroma). As a consequence, an estimated population of 24,838,128 people are inhabiting drought-stricken areas. Educating users on water consumption, taxing agricultural products which consume high levels of

The California drought has affected many lives in the long period of time it has been going on. It has affected our wildlife, residents, and especially our farmers. Now how exactly has it affected our farmers? Our California farms use up to 80% of the water used by humans in the state (Mieszkowski). With the drought going on they have to spend an additional $303 million pumping groundwater to make up for the large amount of water they’ve lost from the Central Valley Project and State Water Project (Associated Press). This drought has cost farmers $600 million this year alone. Although the California drought has surely taken its toll, the aftermath hasn’t been all bad.

Community leaders, California is experiencing the most severe drought in decades, perhaps the worst in the past century. Our current drought has led to fierce wildfires, water shortages and restrictions, and potential loss in the agriculture business. While it has only been four years since the drought began, we have already seen a substantial loss in the body of water California water reservoirs contain. And while hopes for strong precipitation are high, the reality is that we are too deep in our drought to recover with a year or two of strong precipitation. The sad truth is that California uses a vast amount of water each year, varying from public supply and industrial to thermoelectric generators and irrigation systems, all without replenishing

U.S. Secretary John Kerry calls, ” climate change can now be consider another weapon of mass destruction, perhaps the world’s most fearsome weapon of mass destruction” (Arshad Mohammed,2014). In fact, many scientists say that today in California’s drought get worse on the record, for example in 2015, more than 97 percent of California was involved in an average drought or worse. (Stephan Feller, 2016).I try to find some reaches about California’s drought because my family and I are living in California, where it is a significant state in economy and politics. In addition, California’s drought has an effect on everything our life and environment. For example, in 2015, my family felt the weather was too hot, dry and intense, so some of us were more stressed and got sick. Moreover, according to the article “Global Climate Change” heat waves cause more deaths in the USA every year than hurricanes, tornadoes, floods and earthquakes combined. For example, in the summer of 1995, according to Eric, Kleinberg (1995) reported” in Chicago , over seven hundred people had perished-more than twice the number that died in the Chicago Fire of 1871, twenty times the number of those struck by Hurricane Andrew in 1992—in the great Chicago heat wave, one of the deadliest in American history.” Drought in California affects us in many ways; as a result, we should know cause, effect and what to do about California’s drought.

Manzoor, K. P. (2011). The global water crisis: Issues and solutions. IUP Journal of Infrastructure, 9(2), 34-43.

It is an essential resource for sustaining life as well as central to agriculture and rural development, and is intrinsically linked to global challenges of food insecurity and poverty, climate change adaptation and mitigation, as well as degradation and depletion of natural resources that affect the livelihoods of millions of people across the world. According to the World Bank, (2010) report, water is a scarce resource with multiple interwoven uses that range from drinking water, energy, irrigation, manufacturing things, transport of people and goods among others. The report further states that, more than one-sixth of the Worlds’ population does not have access to safe drinking water, with 80% living in rural areas thus access to water cannot not be guaranteed globally.