Water Shortages

Before the end of the century, possibly as early as 1995, Israel and its Arab neighbors will face such severe shortages of water that they will either have to cooperate in solving the problem or go to war over how to divide the dwindling supplies, according to a private research project.

Israel faces a serious water shortage if a two-month drought persists, officials warned. Comptroller Miriam Porat blamed not only the weather but also poor planning by the government. She said the nation's water reserves have been drawn down by 56 billion cubic feet, about what is used annually in the nation. Israel has had little precipitation in the last two months, normally the rainy season.

Sitting on a stone wall near a red barn, Jim Bowers looked past the field of corn that died with its ears on, past the brook that babbled for half a century before it dried up, past the cattle slated for slaughter this summer because they're eating all the hay meant for this winter. What he saw beyond the trees was the frontier of suburbia: miniature mansions built on quarter-acre plots, all with wells that Bowers figures aren't big enough for both hot tubs and bean crops.

The day after Los Angeles city officials ordered water rationing to begin on March 1, Los Feliz landlord Gwendolyn Horton was hand-lettering a sign to her tenants, asking them to "cooperate to save all the water that you can." But in Venice, renter Regina Hyman thought about all the leaky pipes in her apartment building that she says the landlord hasn't fixed--and worried that she and other tenants will be asked to pay water fines.

The drought has come to Shangri-La--or, at least, to Hugh Hefner's version of it. Playboy Mansion groundskeepers are throttling back on the 25,000 gallons a day that have made Hefner's Holmby Hills estate one of the most well-watered residences in a city where the average homeowner consumes around 400 gallons a day. They've installed the first low-flow toilet--and now at night they are going to turn off the waterfalls.

The year's exceptionally dry spring and the two mild winters that preceded it point toward a potential water shortage next year, and this could heighten competition for water between California's farmers and the rapidly growing urban population, Bank of America said Friday in a new economic survey.

In Lake Elsinore, a place proud to be known as one of California's fastest-growing cities, construction has skidded to a standstill, paralyzed by a moratorium on hookups to the local water district. Fifty miles to the south, San Diegans bitter about being asked to conserve water during a building boom are displaying a new slogan on their bumpers: "Flush Twice, Stop Growth."

An expanding population could force significant water shortages in California during the next two decades--unless the state develops more storage or improves its delivery systems, experts warn. Moreover, some of the experts say that moving surplus water from rain-rich Northern California to Southern California is a top priority and believe that some form of the ill-fated Peripheral Canal--which state voters rejected in a 1982 referendum after an emotional debate--remains feasible.

This is the driest year on record in Los Angeles, yet the city's namesake river is defying nature with an abundant stream of water, which, miles to the south, has created a rare oceanside sanctuary for thousands of shorebirds. The source of this water: the bountiful wastewater of a parched city. Most Los Angeles River water is so-called recycled water, highly treated wastewater from upstream treatment plants that has no other place to go.

BORREGO SPRINGS, Calif. -- In a flat desert valley filled with cholla, creosote, citrus and golf, far from any major highway or state water project, residents are struggling to deal with an impending water shortage, highlighted by the failure of a public well this past spring. Borrego Springs is a small unincorporated resort, retirement and agricultural community in northeast San Diego County, surrounded by 600,000-acre Anza-Borrego Desert State Park.