A California water official said Friday farmers are not optimistic about their chances of getting water from the government this year, despite a strong El Nino hammering the state with rainfall.

Deputy General Manager of the Westlands Water District Johnny Amaral told reporters federal authorities don’t expect surface water in his district any time soon. The message is bound to stifle San Joaquin Valley farms, most of which receive the bulk of their water from Westlands.

Water providers are feeling the squeeze.

The drought, rising populations, and environmental concerns are pushing agencies to move toward what, for most, was unthinkable decades before: pushing sewer water into the tap.

While health officials in California, and elsewhere, work out the details, water consortiums are moving on the process to make this new tap water source a reality.

California’s Orange County Water District took ‘reuse and reduce’ to a whole new level with its ground-breaking work in recycling used water. Its general manager Michael R. Markus shares his insights on the organisation’s decades-long journey in protecting the region’s water basin and ensuring water security for millions, efforts that helped it win the 2014 Lee Kuan Yew Water Prize.

California’s current drought crisis isn’t going away any time soon, and state authorities have cast their nets far and wide looking for any way of conserving what little water they have left. Now California Governor Jerry Brown has unveiled new details of a plan for two huge pipes, powered by gravity, to improve the flow of water around the Sunshine State.

The major infrastructure project is called the California Water Fix, and it turns the current system on its head.