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California Must Invest For Cost Effective Long Term Drought Solutions

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California Must Invest in Cost Effective Long-Term Drought Solutions Aldrin Biltz, Conflict and Conflict Resolution, May 17th 2015 I. Background and Context: It has been confirmed that the year 2013 has been recorded as the driest year since California became a state, 165 years ago. This means California has been and is now experiencing its worst drought ever in history. Precipitation and snowpack levels remain well below average, and there does not seem to be an end in sight. As an effort to relieve the negative impacts caused by the drought, Edmund G. Brown Jr., California 's Governor, declared California 's drought a state of emergency and issued state officials to take all necessary actions to assist communities and asked for all …show more content…

While desalination, is indeed an effective long-term solution, it isn 't necessarily the most cost competitive method, because it can cost four to eight times more expensive than alternative solutions. II. Stakes: Economic: When planning on investing for the drought, California should be careful and look to past mistakes to help mitigate the chances of repeated economic failure. For example, in response to the drought that occurred in 1986 to 1991, the city of Santa Barbra spent $34 million U.S. Dollars to fund the construction of a desalination plant which was promptly made idle because it cost way too much to operate. Now the city of Santa Barbra is planning to invest in the reactivation of the plant which will consist of a two year process that can cost up to 20.2 million dollars. Political: Of the $687 million dollars invested, it included $25.3 million for food and $21 million for housing individuals, like farm workers who are out of work. In February, President Barack Obama also announced that the federal government would chip in $183 million to the state. Therefore, the state and federal governments have put hundreds of millions of dollars into aid and it is crucial for them to create a sense of efficiency to the people of California in order to avoid any difficulty in the long run.

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