We've had severe drought during the past 18 months. It's been so severe, that the level of our reservoirs is below 20%.
During the summer, there were already restrictions in most of the cities. You were not allowed to water your grass or fill in your pool unless it was a public access one.
When you change your mind from having all the water you want from any faucet in your home to one where you need to think about getting water for your daily needs, you start to realize how badly we manage our global resources and how our global growth models make us forget about all the collateral disasters we can create when only thinking on monetary benefits for a company or a society.
I live in a quite dense area in terms of population, plus tourism is one of the first GPD sources and I see year after year how we have to restrict our basic water needs to benefit tourism. Some homeowners who have the land and resources to do so have decided to dig a borehole in their properties to avoid restrictions, but if authorities find out you have one, you also get in trouble as water is considered a public resource, no matter if you dig a hole to get it.
I can understand we all need to take care of our resources as they are finite, and in drought periods, we suffer as a society, but when you see how some politicians deal with the growth, ignoring de collateral problems it causes I just can't handle it. We are so used to letting the authorities make decisions, we forget they are directly affecting our lives, not only the money in our pockets due to taxes. They are promising desalination plants to convert the seawater into drinking, spending more money and making the whole system even more unsustainable. What they should do is educate the population to save water and put in the laws to make the companies do the same.
The weather forecast announces big rains in the coming days, hopefully, this will help increase the water reserves, but I am afraid we will quickly forget the problem is still there, and if we do not change our policies, at global, regional local, and personal level.