Californians turned on their sprinklers in force in March, using more water than they did the year before and making a mockery of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s call for voluntary drought conservation.
The State Water Resources Conservation Board said Tuesday that per-capita urban water usage rose 7% in March compared to a year earlier, and was up 14% when compared to March 2020. It was the heaviest consumption of water in March since 2015, when the previous drought was in its worst days.
With the drought in its third year, Newsom has resisted imposing mandatory water conservation but instead has been asking Californians since last July to voluntarily reduce consumption by 15%. By contrast, his predecessor Jerry Brown ordered 25% mandatory cutbacks in urban water use in 2015.
