With all of the rain California has been receiving over the last few weeks, water levels are back to 80% in Sierra snowpack terms and there is “drought improvement“.  The 167-mile stretch of the Hetch-Hetchy system, which provides 85% of the Bay Area’s water, can continue to flow at four fifths capacity.  But water restrictions followed by water rationing are almost imminent, as the San Francisco Public Utilities Commissions (SFPUC) closely monitors the situation and contemplates initiating the first phases of mandatory water rationing.

The rainfall, which should last through this upcoming first March weekend, would have to go unabated until November in order for California to catch up to where it needs to be water-wise!  With this in mind, we can safely say that it’s not so much a question of Will there be mandatory water rationing? It’s more a question of When will it go into effect?  And of course, What will it look like?

Perhaps like the proverbial frog in boiling water, we need to cozy up to the idea of water rationing through a series of declarations, restrictions, ordinances and educational programs on water conservation and drought.  We can try on the temporary, grow accustomed to it, finally welcoming its permanence.

We need not look far to find out where we’re headed.  Australia, a nation far ahead of the US in its water markets, has already been where California is headed.  And we can consider them certainly more advanced in their water conservation efforts when it comes to their lesser water consumption per capita, their heightened in-building water efficiency, their almost mandatory, if not bordering on legion, household water submetering.  Or perhaps a better way to put it is to recall that “necessity is the mother of invention”.

We are closing in on a stark reality.  A Great Water Shortage.  And we can look to David Zetland, the Aguanomics soothsayer, for a great economics lesson on its cause: cheap water.  Without cheap water, there would be no water shortage:

The economics of water are the same everywhere,” says David Zetland. “Scarce water should be expensive water. If it is not, then shortage will result.

And what to do about it?  Prepare we must, in the same way that our civil leaders, such as the water managers, engineers and directors at the SFPUC, are preparing for imminent water rationing for 2.5M customers in the Bay Area.

If you are interested in How You Can Increase Your Cash Flows by $2,500.00 Every Year and Never Pay for High Water Bills Due to Your Tenants’ Running Toilets, sign up for our Free Report here.

Abendigo Reebs is the VP of Business Development for LeakBird Industries LLC in San Francisco, CA. He may be reached by email at ben@leakbird

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