Janice R. Andrews
Water Problems Continue in California Despite Record Rainfall
A shocking discovery has surfaced amid record-breaking rainfall in California: an astounding 80% of the water is being lost to the oceans as a result of poor infrastructure, raising questions about the state’s preparedness to deal with the ongoing drought problem. This troubling discovery is the result of a recent Los Angeles Times article.
Leland Vittert of NewsNation highlighted this important problem by exposing California’s inability to take use of copious amounts of precipitation to restock essential reservoirs like Lake Powell and Lake Mead, or to fill recently built reservoirs. The state is currently experiencing extreme water scarcity as a result of the lack of a strong aqueduct infrastructure for water collection and storage.
“This underscores a larger problem,” said Vittert, “where significant funds have been channeled into renewable energy endeavors in response to climate change, yet essential investments in water infrastructure remain woefully inadequate.”
Climate economist Gernot Wagner of Columbia Business School underlined the need of both climate change adaptation and mitigation, emphasizing the necessity for wise resource allocation. Vittert, however, drew attention to what appears to be an imbalance in California’s resource distribution, pointing out large sums of money spent on renewable energy initiatives but little on water infrastructure.
Wagner brought up the bipartisan infrastructure plan, which allots a significant amount of funds for infrastructure improvement and resilience, but Vittert remained pessimistic, pointing to California’s failed attempts to properly utilize recent rainstorm events.
California needs to act quickly to update its water infrastructure and protect against the disastrous effects of drought while it tackles this enormous problem. Watch this space for more updates on this developing catastrophe.
