Cal­i­for­nia is fac­ing one of the worst droughts the state has ever seen…. it is not the first drought, but based on the water lev­els (and pro­ject­ed water lev­els) the state is in dire need of water and water con­ser­va­tion. Gov­er­nor Brown and the Cal­i­for­nia leg­is­la­ture recent­ly enact­ed water rationing mea­sures try­ing to pro­long the use of the state reser­voirs that have extreme­ly low water lev­els. The restric­tions went so far as to restrict Cal­i­for­ni­ans to 4 minute show­ers… but they failed to address agri­cul­ture and the exces­sive amount of water mod­ern farm­ing prac­tices use. I wont get into the poor farm­ing prac­tices used cur­rent­ly (but if you know any­thing about sus­tain­able agri­cul­ture, mod­ern farm­ing is far from it) nor talk about the lob­by­ing effort to leave agribusi­ness out of the water restric­tions. Quite frankly, I par­tial­ly under­stand the deci­sion not to restrict agriculture…we all need food to eat, and an alarm­ing­ly large amount of food comes from Cal­i­for­nia. As exam­ples, 91% of all grapes, 92% of all almonds, and 90% of all toma­toes con­sumed in the US come from Cal­i­for­nia… and the water con­sump­tion for each is stag­ger­ing (.3 gal­lons per grape, 1.1 gal­lons per almondand a stag­ger­ing 3.3 gal­lons per toma­to).… and these are just sev­er­al crops. Pro­jec­tions say Cal­i­for­nia has one year of water left at cur­rent con­sump­tions rates… so the sit­u­a­tion is seri­ous and requires some seri­ous mea­sures (from every­one). Since the enact­ed mea­sures put zero restric­tions on agri­cul­ture, the bur­den falls pri­mar­i­ly on the reg­u­lar cit­i­zen. So, whether we live in Cal­i­for­nia or not, how does this effect us and what do we do?

Water… stock up on it. We should all be stor­ing water, but its espe­cial­ly impor­tant for those liv­ing in the drought area. Since you are restrict­ed to a 4 minute show­er every day, try cut­ting that in half… either to 2 min­utes (yes it can be done) or every oth­er day and store the water you would have used in water jugs which can be pur­chased from wal­mart or on ama­zon. Install a rain bar­rel. Many munic­i­pal­i­ties have enact­ed ordi­nances against stor­ing rain water but despite the water sit­u­a­tion in Cal­i­for­nia, there is a state law allow­ing home own­ers to catch rain water in bar­rels for gar­den­ing and land­scap­ing. Grant­ed the state has lim­it­ed rain­fall cur­rent­ly but installing rain bar­rels on every gutter/downspout will help save what pre­cious water does fall. This water can be used for gar­dens, pets/livestock, or fil­ter­ing for potable water use. Store as much water as you can.

Food… stock up on it. If the drought con­tin­ues into 2016, the US faces a seri­ous short­fall of food and at best, food prices will sky­rock­et… at worst, we may be faced with food short­ages. As prep­pers we should all be stock­ing up on food, and this drought is a prime exam­ple of why. In the con­text of this drought, think of your preps one of two ways… if we have food short­ages, your preps will car­ry you through a tough time… and if we have sky­rock­et­ing food costs, your preps are a hedge against cost increas­es.

There is no end in sight for this. The win­ter snows that were expect­ed to replen­ish the reser­voirs did­n’t fall at nor­mal lev­els. If things get worse, a four minute show­er will seem like a lux­u­ry. Keep in mind this prob­lem is not just Cal­i­for­nia… so mov­ing out of the effect­ed drought area will not make things bet­ter long term. The west­ern drought is going to effect all of us if water con­ser­va­tion efforts don’t work and if rain does­n’t start to fall. Also keep in mind, this is not the only area suf­fer­ing from a drought.… drought con­di­tions exist spo­rad­i­cal­ly nation­wide (although Cal­i­for­nia is see­ing the worst of it as you can see from the map).  An an exam­ple, the south west of the US is severe­ly over pop­u­lat­ed (com­pared to the car­ry­ing capac­i­ty of the land)… the pic­ture below is a recent view of Lake Mead which is down almost 150 feet from capac­i­ty and that trans­lates to bil­lions of gal­lons of water. Take steps now to ensure you are pro­tect­ed at least mar­gin­al­ly from drought con­di­tions,   regard­less of where you live