California orders water cutbacks to combat drought

Phillips, California: California governor Jerry Brown, in his most sweeping action to combat a devastating multiyear drought, ordered residents and businesses on Wednesday to cut water use by 25 per cent in the first mandatory statewide reduction in California history.

The cuts mean industrial parks and golf courses must immediately cut a quarter of their water use on ornamental turf, and homeowners will be pressed to replace thirsty lawns with drought- toler- ant landscaping. Farmers, already making do with less water for irrigation, will be exempt. The move comes as California’s snowpack, which generally provides about a third of the state’s water, is at its lowest level on record in a sign the state’s drought, now entering its fourth year, is far from over.

Standing in a field of dry, limp grass at a snowmonitoring station in the Sierra Nevada mountains, the fourth- term Democratic governor said the cutbacks would save some 1.5 million acre- feet of water over the next nine months.

“We’re standing on dry ground and we should be standing on 5 feet of snow,” said Mr Brown. “This is rationing. We’re just doing it through the different water districts.”

Mr Brown said the state would develop rebate plans to help families and businesses remove a planned 50 million square feet of lawns, and replace old appliances with newer, more waterefficient models.