(KERO) — As California deals with a lingering drought, Governor Gavin Newsom is announcing his plans to address the ongoing water crisis in the state.
He says the time has come to invest tens of billions of dollars in water recycling, storage and desalinization over the next two decades, this to shore up supply as the state gets drier and hotter.
The Governor's proposal coming as drought continues to grip the western half of the U.S, the State Department of Water Resources saying California may lose 10% of its water supply by 2040.
Newsom says he wants to boost the annual water supply by nearly 3 million acre feet each year, as one acre foot can supply water to about two households.
But, the new proposal doesn't call for any immediate, mandatory cuts to water use in cities or on farms.
Meanwhile, that ongoing drought is impacting the state's farmers. This year, California farmers have planted fewer acres, fallowed fields and reduced livestock herds as water supplies diminish.
That's resulted in around 1.7 billion dollars in revenue loss and a loss of employment for 14,000 farm workers.
The California Farm Water Coalition predicts this upcoming year will be worse with a total of 25,000 jobs lost.
