Drought in southern United States affects California and New Mexico

U.S. – Farmers in the southern United States suffer severely from the drought that is registered in the country.

Faced with this situation, governments like California’s are looking for strategies to restrict the water consumption of all its inhabitants.

Governor Gavin Newsom recently asked residents to take care of their water supply as the state is going through a severe drought.

As in 2015, once again Californians have to reduce their water consumption through daily activities such as turning off the water in the shower while soaping as well as brushing their teeth, washing cars with a bucket. of water and try not to fill the pools.

Wade Crowfoot, secretary of the Natural Resources Agency, said that they remain optimistic and hope that citizens heed the call and stop wasting water, as it is not the first time that they have to take action together to address the drought problem.

If the drought continues and the situation worsens, then they will have to carry out other types of restrictions, including making the reduction of water consumption mandatory.

So far the restrictions on water consumption are not mandatory despite the fact that scientists and experts on the subject mention that the extreme temperatures that have been registered in the entity are intensifying the scarcity of water.

Currently residents must voluntarily reduce 15% of their water consumption.

On this occasion, they face the problem that generated the scarce rains registered in the winter, since they only caused a minimum layer of snow in the Sierra Nevada mountains, in addition to the fact that in spring the heat evaporated the runoff that was contemplated to flow to the reservoirs. .

Felicia Marcus, a visiting fellow at Stanford University, said the governor has done a good thing by asking people to help save water.

Marcus, who served in the Jerry Brown administration as chair of the state water board during California’s latest record drought, said you should plan with a worst-case scenario.

In the state of New Mexico, drought is also affecting crops, as well as the most fertile lands in the United States.

The situation is so serious that farmers are changing their way of subsistence, that is, those who practically all their lives dedicated to cultivation are now selling their land or are giving it another use, either using the land to install solar panel farms , because water is the most precious and scarce product.

The governor’s exhortation to stop wasting water has been accepted by families like the Valles family, who make modifications in their routines to take care of the supply.

Patricia Valles commented that the youngest members of the family were the ones who used up water, however she talks to them daily about the importance of taking care of it, so when they brush their teeth, they accompany them to have the habit of turning off the faucet while brushing their teeth. He also makes the recommendation when bathing and playing, since it was common to launch balloons with water, now they carry out other activities to entertain themselves in the summer.

We must all cooperate because simply if the water runs out, food will be scarce, so we are setting an example for the little ones at home, because they would be the ones who would be most affected if the water runs out, he added.