One of my fondest memories growing up in Hawaii was Hurricane Nina, which wasn’t very significant in the history books, but it left an impression on me. Torrential rains and heavy winds knocked down banana trees and power lines, and took out water mains. We didn’t have running water for part of the time – my dad drove down the hill to fill buckets from a water truck. Mom taught us how to take baths in buckets: she boiled water on the stove and mixed in cold water until the temperature was just right.

A simple truth: Our homes, businesses and communities in western Los Angeles County served by the Las Virgenes Municipal Water District would not exist were it not for water from Northern California.

But the reliability of those supplies is at long-term risk.

This high quality Sierra Nevada supply flows through the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. But, deteriorating environmental conditions have led to greater pumping restrictions. State and federal agencies are developing a plan to modernize this water system by building new intakes and a twin tunnel pipeline delivery system to reliably capture water and deliver it to millions of Californians.

Gov. Jerry Brown has signed a measure by state Sen. Lois Wolk, D-Davis, to help failing public water systems provide services in disadvantaged communities throughout California. Wolk’s Senate Bill 552 enables the state to contract with third-party administrators with the expertise to help provide customers of these failing water systems with safe and affordable drinking water. “All Californians have a right to safe, clean, affordable and accessible water suitable for human consumption, cooking and sanitation,” Wolk said.

Gulf states are among the most water-scarce in the world. With few freshwater resources and low rainfall, many countries have turned to desalination (where salt is removed from seawater) for their clean water needs. But Gulf states are heading for “peak salt”: the more they desalinate, the more concentrated wastewater, brine, is pumped back into the sea; and as the Gulf becomes saltier, desalination becomes more expensive. “In time, it’s going to become impossible to use desalination in a way that makes economic sense,” says Gökçe Günel, an anthropologist at the University of Arizona.