I am sitting on my lounge chair at home watching the southern California wildfires unfold on my television screen and it is almost beyond belief. We already know about the Santa Ana winds, these offshore winds blow strongly during winter. These dry winds from the inland US lack moisture, they dry out the plants and you have the conditions for a really nasty fire. Coupled with drought, this is almost a disaster waiting to happen although I read there was actually enough water, the issues are the distribution system it seems.  

The drama unfolding on television screens could be written into a soap opera, it has it all. There are dry fire hydrants, fire hydrants that lack water pressure, a fire budget stripped by $17 million, politicians infighting, even President elect Donald Trump is bashing Californian politicians including Governor Gavin Newsome calling him incompetent. Now the Governor is concerned Trump is not going to withhold federal disaster relief funds – I hope he is wrong. I read the fire department is under funded, not enough firefighters, not enough equipment and not enough fire stations, this severely damages both capability and morale. 

I am amazed and shocked at the complete devastation caused by these wildfires, whole neighbourhoods are wiped out. So what we have learned is that there have been water issues in southern California, whilst I really do not know the history behind the water shortages. However, southern California is similar to south west Australia in many respects, our rainfall has declined so we have desalination plants to supply water for the city and region. Unlike Perth, the water comes from outside Los Angeles, this has to be pumped in from way out of the city, any issues with the pumping infrastructure and I see why they are having water pressure issues.