MONSON, Tulare County In this corner of the scorched Tulare Lake Basin, where lives and livelihoods depend on water that comes from the ground, a human crisis is accelerating amid California’s unrelenting drought. In northern Tulare County, drinking-water wells are running dry in Monson and other farmworker communities. Scores of people who rely on groundwater for drinking, cooking and bathing are anxiously turning to jugged water supplied by the government, makeshift residential tanks and human ingenuity to sustain their existence. As Gov. Jerry Brown calls for 25 percent cutbacks in urban water use statewide and urges Californians to rip out their lawns, the challenges in this sensitive basin are particularly poignant. The pain is shared broadly as the state’s prolonged drought desiccates a verdant agricultural landscape, long supplied with water from both groundwater aquifers and the vast network of government pipelines that move water from north to south in California.
In Tulare Lake Basin, a crisis is accelerating amid California’s drought
MONSON, Tulare County – People don’t easily forget the moment the water dies.
In this corner of the scorched Tulare Lake Basin, where lives and livelihoods depend on water that comes from the ground, a human crisis is accelerating amid California’s unrelenting drought. In northern Tulare County, drinking-water wells are running dry in Monson and other farmworker communities.
Scores of people who rely on groundwater for drinking, cooking and bathing are anxiously turning to jugged water supplied by the government, makeshift residential tanks and human ingenuity to sustain their existence.
As Gov. Jerry Brown calls for 25 percent cutbacks in urban water use statewide and urges Californians to rip out their lawns, the challenges in this sensitive basin are particularly poignant. The pain is shared broadly as the state’s prolonged drought desiccates a verdant agricultural landscape, long supplied with water from both groundwater aquifers and the vast network of government pipelines that move water from north to south in California.
In Monson, ever since Maria Jimenez saw the last filthy drop spit into her sink, life has changed.
Maria’s husband, Ramon, hauls home five-gallon buckets of well water from the farm fields where he works. He climbs onto their roof and pours the water into a sawed-off metal barrel. It connects to a garden hose that flows to their shower head, complete with a shutoff valve he installed.
Meanwhile, the California Office of Emergency Services, State Water Resources Control Board, Tulare County and nonprofit community groups are working to bring tons of bottled drinking water to residents in Monson and replenish household supplies. They’re setting up outdoor porta-potties to replace toilets that have no water to flush.
Jimenez lugs heavy jugs into her kitchen. She uses disposable dishes as much as possible and draws on sparse water to wash the rest. She warms water in a large pot for the grandchildren’s baths. On a nearby wall, portraits of angels look over her. They are paired with images of the Virgin of Guadalupe and, from her native Mexican state of Jalisco, Nuestra Señora de San Juan de los Lagos – known as Our Lady of the Lakes.
These days, Jimenez says, “We pray to Our Father. And we pray for favors.â€