The water agency of southern California advised its using residents to make efforts and reduce the water consumption by 10% to 20% to protect the state’s reserves. The agency’s appeal to the citizens of the region comes a few days after California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger issued the statewide drought proclamation.   

The people who live in California’s regions threatened by drought have “no room for water waste” as Anthony Fellow, vice chairman of the board of the Metropolitan Water District, put it. Metropolitan Water District is the water distributor for more than 18 million people from Ventura County to the Mexican border.

The first measure taken as a consequence of the statewide drought was to draw down the reserves by half during the last two years. Now its time for step 2: implementing a nonbinding water supply alert. Step 2 could come as soon as Tuesday.

The alert will force citizens to save water through conservation laws, which are already in the books. The cities of Los Angeles and Long Beach are already enforcing such laws, but other cities need to follow the example and update their ordinances, said MWD General Manager Jeff Kightlinger.

Water restrictions were already imposed in many state districts and a U.S. court ruled that the state should pump less water from its San Joaquin-Sacramento River Delta, the state's fresh-water hub.

When announcing the statewide drought, Governor Schwarzenegger also mentioned the fact that the past three months were the driest ever in California’s recorded history.

The issuing of the statewide drought proclamation directs the state Department of Water Resources to make the water transfers more quickly to the areas which need it the most and also orders agencies to help farmers suffering losses from the drought.

Schwarzenegger warned that the situation could worsen in 2009 if another dry winter follows.