Los Angeles is running out of water, and time. Are leaders willing to act?
In the past 15 years, in the United States, more than 3.5 million people now live in cities that lack adequate drinking water. That’s according to a report released on Earth Day by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the agency says it expects that figure to grow to as many as 7 million by 2050, with a corresponding rise in the number of people with infectious diseases.
Los Angeles has the highest water-use rate, a key indicator to measure how much water a population needs to have access to.
At the same time, the city can’t make the same investments in water infrastructure as have other metro areas with abundant water supplies. The city has already put a million more people on the streets since the 1960s.
Instead, the city is cutting its own spending, leading to one of the most severe budget crises Los Angeles has seen in decades.
Leaders are finally listening.
In the past week or so, city leaders, in an initiative called LA-50, cut spending to balance the city’s already short $300 million budget deficit. City leaders want to close a deficit that stands at $9.2 million.
Here’s how LA-50 works: First, city leaders will begin to reduce spending by $1 million per day, the total of $10 million a year, over the next year. Any of the cuts will be made on a city-wide basis, not by just one department or agency.
And some of the biggest cuts come from the Department of Water and Power, the agency that provides power to the majority of the city.
The City Council also approved measures that would freeze hiring at DWP for two years, and will eliminate the department’s water conservation incentives program, which gives out free water to residents.
For most of the last 15 years, the Los Angeles Public Utilities Commission has been at the forefront of water conservation efforts, and has made great strides in lowering water consumption.
But under the leadership of Mayor Villaraigosa, the Commission has failed to take concrete steps to reduce water consumption, and cut the city’s water consumption by 20% or more through the last few years.
LA-50 represents a major step towards getting water conservation to be a real priority for the city.
Last year, Villaraigosa pledged to
