The main source of this problem is the degree to which people are using drinking water for watering their gardens and cleaning their cars. Those who are particularly aggravating the problems are relatively well educated home owners who do not include water conservation on the list of their civic duties.
“Water is precious. Let’s Conserve itâ€.
Let me get this straight. Raise the price of water and people will use less. These "People" think bottled tap water is a great deal at $1.00 for 16 ounces. Then they pay $2 for bottled spring water. But the best water is the $4 imported water from some crystal clear stream on a Pacific island. And these people are going to cut back? gonna flush less? take fewer baths? actually conserve water? When we put some strict water use regulations in place, backed them up with nice stiff fines, and then started enforcing them with a vengance-well it worked, at least for now.
The city of Santa Fe NM USA, cut way back on homeowner water consumption a couple of years ago when the mountain reservoirs above that overpopulated little city, became almost dry. The sewage flow came to a halt in certain lines, due to the lack of water to keep it moving. Obviously the problem is as much related to overpopulating a desirable area, as it is to water consumption by individuals. Laws will have to change as to population,.... tough to accomplish because it is illegal to stop influx of population these days. Boulder Colorado USA tried it back in the 70's. They lost the ensuing lawsuit. This following link was a period with a lot of water. http://cretaceous.wordpress.com/
Easy Solution
Seems to me that the easiest fix for the "water shortage" is to apply market-based pricing. If the supply is low then raise the price! If the price is high enough then people WILL find ways to conserve. Even if the price increased tenfold nobody would be unable to afford drinking water, but they sure would think twice before watering their lawn.
There. Problem solved. Bring on the next issue.