California regulators imposed sweeping cuts to water usage across the state this week, ordering hundreds of government agencies to meet mandatory reduction targets and urging citizens to stop watering their lawns amid unrelenting drought conditions.
Governor Jerry Brown set a goal to cut urban water use by 25 percent, but the plan still leans heavily on citizens to adopt their own water conservation methods. Above are snapshots of the key players in this crisis, and the challenges they've faced as water supplies dwindle to historic lows, as detailed by the Public Policy Institute of California.