As the looming drought becomes worse and worse for California Monte Vista has been doing its best to conserve water.

Monte Vista began drastically lowering the amount of water used at the beginning of the year. Vice Principal Pagano explains how Monte Vista has drastically reduced sprinkler usage to a point where they are almost always turned off.  

“The district has a very quick response to water maintenance problems now such as leaking water fountains,” says Pagano.

Pagano explains how Monte Vista has drastically reduced sprinkler usage to a point where they are almost always turned off. This act has saved countless amounts of water but is also killing the plant life it waters.

Another way Monte Vista is preventing water is by not power washing over the summer. Many schools power wash before the start of the school year to have a less dusty and more clean campus for the incoming and returning students. However, without the power washing at MV, the school is less clean and shiny than normal.

Although Monte Vista has drastically changed their water consumption,  lots of plant life has begun to die. The grassy lawns that once existed at MV are now either dead grass or dirt. The nearby trees at the front of the school are brown and dying from lack of water.

“I was looking at pictures from this school a few months ago and the lawns used to look so pretty, but we have to do our best to conserve the water,” Pagano said.

There are many ways one can conserve water in this drought. The California Department of Water Resources has a few helpful tips.  Don’t take long showers. Some showers can use up to 5 gallons per minute. Reducing these showers can help drastically decrease usage.

More tips include decreasing power washing  and to manually wash dishes. Taking baths are not suggested either as to they use up to 30 gallons of water. Limit watering plants and if you have a pool or fountain to turn off filtering and drain if possible. Also one should to buy high efficiency washing machines and dishwashers.

The California Department of Water Resources states that in the San Ramon Area residents must reduce the water usage by 20%. Other areas such as San Francisco and Oakland only had to reduce by a small 8%. Other places such as Rio Vista and Morgan Hill are at the top of conservation and must reduce by 36%.

Many experts believe that El Niño could play an important role in ending the drought in California. The storm is expected to result in large amount of rain in a long period of time in California. El Niño is expected to hit Winter 2015 and can last up to Spring 2016.

80% of all water used in California is by agriculture. Over the past year California has reduced its water by more the 27%. In April, California was only cutting down on water by 4% but each month the amount of water being reduced is increasing. Just last month California cut down by nearly 36%.