California braces for unending drought

Sinking houseboats on
California's Lake Oroville.

Los Angeles: With California entering its fifth year of a statewide drought, Governor Jerry Brown has launched permanent water conservation measures and called on suppliers to prepare for a future made forever drier by climate change.

Under the Governor's executive order on Monday, emergency drought regulations, such as bans on hosing down driveways or watering lawns within 48 hours of a rainstorm, will remain indefinitely.

Urban water suppliers will be required to report their water use to the state each month and develop plans to get through long periods of drought.

Despite winter rains that replenished reservoirs and eased dry conditions in parts of northern California, the Governor suggested the drought may never entirely end, and that the state needed to adapt to life with less water.

Read the story by Ian Lovett in today’s Melbourne Age - “California braces for unending drought.”