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As climate change drives drier winters and shrinking snowmelt across the West, Southern California and Arizona are rushing to diversify their water supplies — investing in recycling, storage and Colorado River imports to guard against another crippling drought.

With fire season approaching, public officials in SoCal are debating not only whether the region has enough water to battle potential blazes like the one in Pacific Palisades, but also whether supplies will be sufficient in the coming months and years to meet basic drinking needs.

The San Diego City Council’s debate over whether to raise water rates on 1.4 million people Tuesday promises to be brutal. San Diego’s independent budget analysts last week answered the question: What happens if City Council doesn’t raise rates? The answer was bad: The Public Utilities Department cuts 30 percent of its budget and cuts staff or defaults on loans.

There’s another question that deserves a look just in case stuff really goes haywire. San Diego City Councilmember Marni von Wilpert was so ticked off at the San Diego County Water Authority for its spiking prices back in January, she suggested the city stop paying its water bills.

Amid handwringing at San Diego City Hall over next week’s vote to hike water rates, city analysts dropped a harrowing report revealing how easily the department that handles water and wastewater could collapse without them.

There are whispers that Mayor Todd Gloria’s administration is struggling to get the votes to pass a four-year proposed 63 percent rate hike and 31 percent wastewater rate hike Tuesday. But the city’s independent budget analysts sharply warned against doing anything that would starve the Public Utilities Department of more revenue.