As California sits stuck in the fourth year of a grappling drought, the Metropolitan Water District is rolling out a new media campaign urging people to save every precious drop.
The message? If "all Southern Californians do a little more to save water, it adds up to make a big difference."
The "Take A Turn" summer campaign will air in English, Spanish, Mandarin, Korean and Vietnamese, will be plastered on billboards and promoted across social media.
"What I think is important about this campaign is how it is an individual call to action," Metropolitan board Chairman Randy Record said in a statement. "This campaign has a simple but powerful message. Every bit that every one of us does to save water will add up to big savings. And it is now all of our turns to take conservation to the next level."
People will be urged to turn off water knobs and faucets sooner than they may be used to doing so they can prevent wasting water as it runs down the rain.
Homeowner Louise Bianco, 87, ripped out her lawn to help support her parched state.
"It’s what everyone in California needs to do," Bianco said. "We need to acknowledge we are a desert state."
"'Turn' has a powerful double meaning: Much of water conservation begins with the action of 'turning' something off and now it’s time to take our 'turn," Metropolitan General Manager Jeffrey Kightlinger said. "The word encourages us to take action."
The MWD will spend over $5 million to get out the message of water conservation, but the total media buy of $3.7 million for the campaign is valued at more than $5.9 million, said Sue Sims, Metropolitan’s manager of external affairs.
"This added value was made possible in part by high interest from Southern California media companies to help us all get through the drought," Sims said.
The MWD provides water to more than 19 million people in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Diego and other counties.
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"We’re going to have water for 2016, but it means we have to take action now in 2015," Kightlinger said. "If we did nothing we probably would be out of water in a year or two."
The campaign reveal comes on the same day the State Water Resources Control Board said cities showed their best drought conservation yet by cutting water use 29 percent in May compared to two years ago.
Ted Chen contributed to this report.
