Drought Could Widen Class Divide
By Sara Jerome,
@sarmje
There is a class divide in California when it comes to how the drought is affecting different neighborhoods.
"Although 81 percent of the state is experiencing an 'extreme drought," for many parts of California there is no apparent water shortage. Visit the highest-income neighborhoods and you'll see lush lawns and sparkling fountains defiantly sucking our lifeblood from the Earth. Apparently, the rich will do whatever it takes to keep themselves moist," Gizmodo reported.
In fact, wealthy people sometimes truck in their own water to avoid the effects of the drought.
"A year ago, Oprah’s annual bill from the Montecito Water District was just shy of $125,000. This year, it is less than half. Like many in this wealthy enclave, Oprah has cut back on her consumption of district water. That said, her property has its own wells and a small lake and, according to neighbors, there are the [trucks that carry in water]," Politico reported.
"These days, tankers can be seen barreling down Montecito’s narrow country roads day and night, ferrying up to 5,000 gallons of H20 to some of the world’s richest and thirstiest folks," the report said.
How expensive is trucking in water during one of the worst droughts the state has seen in years? "Bob Hazard, a retired hotel CEO who writes a news column for the Montecito Journal, says he would not be surprised if some of the town's wealthiest are 'paying as much as $15,000 a month for trucked-in water,'" Politico reported.
The California drought, and its adverse effects on agriculture, has the potential to widen the class divide in another way by raising food prices, according to a column published by Bloomberg View.
"If California's agriculture has to scale back...much of the produce in your supermarket would become dramatically more expensive, especially in the winter. The Midwest could basically take over the job in the summer, and imports from South America could probably make up some of the remaining difference, but most of us would be relying a lot more on frozen fruit and vegetables, and a lot less on fresh," the column said.
"It would be a massive change in how many of us cook. It would also widen the divide between how the upper middle class and beyond eat, and how the rest of the country does," it said.
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