Parched California shames water-guzzling town

Bermuda Dunes, an oasis in the Coachella Valley, 190km east of Los Angeles, uses 1300 litres of water per person per day. Photo / Getty Images

A wealthy town of 6000 people has been named the worst offender in California for guzzling water as the state tries to crack down on wastefulness during a crippling four-year drought.

Bermuda Dunes, an oasis in the Coachella Valley, 190km east of Los Angeles, uses 1300 litres of water per person per day.

That compares with 525 litres in Los Angeles, which itself uses twice as much water as an average city in Europe.

Bermuda Dunes, which sprang up out of the desert in the 60s, has 354 days of sunshine a year and receives less than 9cm of rain a year.

It is home to the lush Bermuda Dunes Country Club, has its own airport, and Hollywood star Clark Gable once lived in a mansion in the town.

Conservationists have called the use of water in the area a "crime" and "unsustainable" and the situation could become worse as summer approaches.

Under plans recently announced by Jerry Brown, the Governor of California, the state is trying to reduce water consumption by 25 per cent.

The 400 water companies in California have been ranked on how much water is being used by consumers, and different levels of cuts have been imposed.

Myoma Dunes Mutual Water Company, which supplies Bermuda Dunes, has been ranked worst for consumption, and was told to make the maximum 35 per cent cut.

Customers of two other much bigger water companies which supply larger towns in the Coachella Valley were also in the top 10 of California's per capita water usersand the companies were also issued with 35 per cent targets.

The state has the power to fine those who don't meet the targets up to US$10,000 ($13,532) a day.

In the Coachella Valley, within striking distance of Bermuda Dunes, there are more than 120 golf courses, which attract players from around the world.

Their artificial lakes and lush fairways use a quarter of the water that is taken from rapidly depleting wells.

Other offenders are the sprinklers used to maintain residential lawns.

According to residents there is still overflow water from sprinklers running down roadside gutters.

Richard O'Donnell, a retired architecture professor who has got rid of his own lawn in Bermuda Dunes, told the Desert Sun: "The use is obscene. People just don't have the consciousness of the water and where it comes from. There's so much apathy about the use of water."

Water companies have argued that up to a third of their customers own holiday homes in the area, and are only there seasonally, but many leave their sprinklers on while they are away.

The identification of Bermuda Dunes as the biggest per head user of water is part of a new trend in California known as "drought shaming" in which neighbours use social media to criticise water wasters.

Last week the trend extended to celebrities as the New York Post published aerial photographs of their lawns. A representative for Barbra Streisand, whose lawn in Malibu was featured, said she had already cut water usage by over 50 per cent and "is going to take further steps to conserve water".