Californians scramble for fresh water as taps, wells run dry

Californians are scrambling for fresh water as taps and wells run dry amid the severe drought across the West that is causing many problems.

In the San Joaquin Valley in California, drought is threatening the drinking supply for thousands of rural residents, as well as the livelihoods for the farmers, according to a report by the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS).

Jaime Rivera, a Madera resident, says his well has run dry. “It hasn’t worked for three weeks. And, really, it hasn’t worked for the last two years,” he told PBS.

Also, many people living in rural areas are not able to connect to their local municipal water systems as they are too expensive or too far away, therefore, they have to rely on their own private wells for water.

Drought is badly affecting farmers in California where agriculture is an over $50 billion industry, using roughly half the state’s total water supply.

“This is a region that has evolved with water scarcity. So, growers have moved more and more into crops that generate more dollars per gallon of water used, and that means, in that region, more tree crops, like almonds especially, but also vines and fruits. But it puts them in between a rock and a hard place when you get into a really bad drought,” Ellen Hanak, who heads the Water Policy Center at the Public Policy Institute of California, told PBS.

Meanwhile, underground water resources are being threatened as the number of wells dug to pull water out of the ground has increased due to the drought which resulted in canals drying up.

To control this threat and restrict groundwater use, the state passed a law in 2014. Although it hasn’t gone fully into effect, farmers are worried with some estimates showing the law could put a million acres of farmland out of production.