We have an enormous cushion and can survive multiple drought years. The current water restrictions are just mild precautions against the chance that this will be a multi-year drought.
Right now we are at the "please let your lawns get a bit brown" level. In the 1970s, the multi-year drought got to the point where the restrictions were "do not use more than 50 gallons per person per day."
> The current water restrictions are just mild precautions against the chance that this will be a multi-year drought.
The current drought has already had both lower rainfall in the worst years and more years below the long-term average than the multi-year drought of the 1970s.
> Right now we are at the "please let your lawns get a bit brown" level. In the 1970s, the multi-year drought got to the point where the restrictions were "do not use more than 50 gallons per person per day."
Actually, the kind of mandatory limits imposed in the 1970s drought are also being imposed in many places in this drought, although the bigger effect is on the bigger use of water (and bigger increase in the use of water since the 1970s), agricultural uses. see, e.g. http://www.usbr.gov/mp/PA/water/
Who uses 50 gallons per person per day? People with a swimming pool?
A 10 minute shower is ~25 gallons, so how on Earth can 50gallons/person/day can be a "restriction"?
(not being a judgemental asshole, but I'm not honestly dumbfounded)
A dishwasher uses ~6 gallons of water per cycle. Flush can use 3 to 7 gallons and are often flushed 2 or more times a day. Shaving and brushing your teeth can easily use 2 or more gallons. Add in cooking and 50 gallons per day is well below what the average person uses even without watering their lawn.
PS: Older showers used up to 4 gallons per minute, high flow showers can get well above that. Worse and old style washing machine will often use 40 to 45 gallons per load.
That would have to be an ancient toilet to use 7 gallons of water. US law has required a maximum of 1.6 gallons per flush for new toilets since the late 90s, and I've never seen one more that used more than 3 in my life.
Don't forget the folks who rent. It looks like the national average is 35% and California can be up to 50% in areas (hard to tell if the statistics are by person or by household).
Landlords have no incentives to install toilets and appliances that use less water (or electricity), and every incentive to go cheap (which will also be less frugal). They don't incur any of the running costs. And since it is private property they can't be forced into doing anything. Tenants rarely have rights to install more efficient ones either.
If you get out of rent controlled areas like San Francisco, you'll find it's actually quite common for landlords to foot utility bills (except electricity), or at the least charge a flat fee per month that doesn't vary with usage.
Having individualized water meters isn't nearly as efficient or convenient for large apartment complexes as just doing it centrally, especially when the landlord is also using a large chunk of the water (eg for communal lawns). Rent control regimes prohibit separate fees (or higher rents) including the price of the water, so landlords in rent control situations will pass such costs directly to residents any way they can, even if it is inefficient. They'll also pass the costs of upgrading fixtures like toilets and showers, since they're not allowed to charge for them either.
I lived in Santa Cruz, CA for 14 years where there is no rent control, and in regular houses. While apartments may have utilities included for the reasons you gave, individual houses don't because there is no need.
In one house it would have cost $20 more to replace a toilet with an efficient one, versus repairing the existing leaking old one. I wanted to pay that $20 extra - they refused leaving me paying higher water for several years.
My wife and I work from home most of the time. I just checked our last bill and our use is 108 gallons per day. Toilets, showers, laundry, cooking, dishwasher. We don't wash our cars and just water some house plants. It adds up.
Some folks water their lawns twice a day and take two showers, hose down the car every Saturday and set up a water slide for the kids. It's not hard to use a lot of water.
In other words, it was intended to be a restriction on truly frivolous use, while still allowing all the basic day-to-day without worry.
Right now we are at the "please let your lawns get a bit brown" level. In the 1970s, the multi-year drought got to the point where the restrictions were "do not use more than 50 gallons per person per day."