#DroughtShaming goes berserk in California as tattlers rat out neighbors who waste water

(NaturalNews) As the years-long drought continues in California, a combination of water shortages, price hikes and state conservation measures has led to an upsurge in tattling in the form of drought shaming – the practice of outing persons publicly who are abusing water or breaking conservation rules.

There is even a hashtag for it: #DroughtShaming.

As reported by the UK's Daily Mail, a number of Californians are posting to shaming social media sites for a variety of reasons, including tattling on neighbors with leaky sprinklers as well as waiters and waitresses serving water in restaurants without first asking patrons if they even want a glass.

In addition, an app called DroughtShame has been developed too, in order to "capture geotagged photo proof of disregard for California's water restrictions."

Photos included in the Daily Mail story show Californians watering grass and trees, as well as screen grabs of the DroughtShame app where users have snapped pics of water wasting by cities and private businesses.

Residents turned in for overwatering lawns, spraying off parking lots

State officials appear to be enabling the shaming. In recent days, the California launched a website, SaveWater.ca.org, where residents can upload pictures and details of water waste.

At that point, complaints are then forwarded to local governments based on the address of the reported waste.

As of this writing, more than 300 agencies had signed up to view details of residents wasting water. A number of local agencies had already established their own tattling sites.

The state has imposed several restrictions on the use of water. They include a ban on washing cars with hoses that do not have shut-off nozzles and restrictions on lawn-watering within two days of rare rainfall. However, enforcement has largely been sporadic across the state, as cash-and-resource-starved local governments focus on more important issues like crime.

In April, state officials enacted rules for mandatory rationing of water for urban use, which forced cities to cut back on watering on public property. The rules also encourage homeowners to let their lawns die off. And they imposed mandatory water-conservation goals for hundreds of local agencies and cities that supply water to customers.

But use of the drought shaming sites has exploded. In one post, a user wrote a caption alongside the pic of an employee at a Goodwill store washing off a parking lot that read: "#goodwill in #MDR washing parking lot for some annoying reason. #drought #droughtshaming #savewater #wtf #cadrought."

Drought shaming becoming more popular

In addition, as reported further by the Daily Mail:

On DroughtShame's Twitter account, it shared picture of sprinklers running during the night at a home in North Hollywood.

'Running for >30 mins, this place can officially charge admission as a water park. #droughtshaming #NorthHollywood,' the tweet read.

A resident shared a video of a neighbor on the civic networking site, Vizsafe, with a message that said: 'My neighbor (person in video) waters the grass everyday or other day morning or noon for about 30mins.'

Gov. Jerry Brown, a Democrat who pushes a radical climate change agenda, has pushed for more stringent water use regulations. He has argued that voluntary conservation isn't working or, at a minimum, has not worked well enough to save enough water amid a four-year drought. He ordered state water districts to cut urban use by 25 percent in 2013; he declared a drought emergency the following year.

Water use throughout the state through June declined by 27 percent, surpassing the target set by Brown, CBS News reported.

Terrence Davis of the Sacramento Department of Utilities has said that complaints by residents of water being wasted have risen dramatically over the past two years, according to KOVR, a local CBS affiliate.

Drought shaming, it seems, is popular.

Sources:

DailyMail.co.uk

CBSNews.com

Sacramento.CBSLocal.com