The World Health Organization estimates that by the year 2025, half of the world’s population will be living in water-stressed areas. And in fact, when Beverly Hills helped co-found the Metropolitan Water District (MWD) almost a century ago – from which the city now derives 100 percent of its water – far fewer communities needed to tap into the Colorado River to ensure access to water.
While experts do not necessarily agree on the course of action municipalities should take to ensure their long-term viability in the face of predicted water shortages, Beverly Hills is on track to diversify its water portfolio by looking more to its own resources. The city is now planning to once again capture and treat portions of its own water supply with the expectation that roughly 20 percent of its water will derive from the city’s water wells beginning in 2021 with the reopening of the Foothill Water Treatment Plant.
