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            California has been facing a serious drought for 4 years, which has created a strain on citizens of the state as they try to conserve their water usage. “Warmer and drier conditions over the past decade in California, in addition to court-mandated restrictions on the Sacramento River Delta water supply, have generally reduced the amount of water resources available to Southern California.” (Mini, 2015) It is important for all people in the state to watch how much water they use in order to preserve enough for other citizens and for themselves to use in the future. “California Water Board enforcement office director Cris Carrigan said across the state, residents and water suppliers [are] making sacrifices to preserve water.” (California drought, 2015) Unfortunately, this is not the case for every citizen and water supplier in the state. Cities and communities of wealthy people such as celebrities and government officials have neglected the motion to reduce water consumption. “… Some residents of Beverly Hills and the nearby Bel Air neighbourhood have been criticised for not turning off their taps.” (California drought, 2015) These cities, among others, continue to consume hefty amounts of water, one home even using enough water to provide for 90 homes. (California drought, 2015) The more water these wealthy citizens use, the less water there will be for all citizens in the state.

 

            California has taken strides to discipline the lack of achievement found in these cities that continue to consume massive amounts of water. “The wealthy district's water utility was fined about [$61,000]…  It is the first time California officials have imposed fines on communities that have failed to meet water conservation goals imposed because of the four-year drought.” Since the drought began, the state has had no incidents fining cities for water consumption until now. These few cities, mostly consisting of wealthy citizens, have expressed their distress in not being able to meet the goals set by the state. “Beverly Hills officials said in a statement the city was striving to meet its water conservation goals and penalty surcharges had come into effect in October.” In order to conserve the small amount of safe water in California, all citizens must take responsibility for their consumption.

 

            The state of California has recently implemented new strategies to reduce water usage throughout. Not only is the threat to the state’s water supply significant, but “single-family water-related CO2 emissions are 2% of overall per capita emissions.” (Escriva, 2015). Water usage also contributes to the total carbon emissions. The prevention of diminishing the state’s water supply is the main goal of California’s push to conserve water, but it the process it can also reduce its carbon footprint. These changes began in 2008 and are still continuing today. “Three phases of water restrictions were implemented during the 2008–2010 period: voluntary restrictions (FY2008), mandatory restrictions (FY2009), and yet more stringent mandatory restrictions combined with a price increase and a decrease in overall household allocations (FY2010).” (Mini, 2015) The state began by offering voluntary restrictions, but needed to enforce full mandatory restrictions to reduce water usage. Despite these implementations, many wealthy households have refused to decrease their water usage to acceptable levels, bringing continued stress to the region. It is apparent that the efforts the state has gone to have not been enough to convince wealthy households the importance of saving water, and continued action is necessary.