The state is getting ready for this natural disaster the best way they know how – by using more government control and by claiming ownership over natural resources on private property. In fact, the state is now requiring flow meters on agricultural wells, to stop farmers and private land owners from pumping water on their own property. Pumping water will no longer be free and unlimited. California plans to meter all rural wells, limit the amount of water farmers can use, and charge them millions of dollars for it. These new controls will inevitably change cultivation practices across the state, constricting food production and controlling food supply.

California carrying out the UN's sustainable development goals, profiting off natural resources
California has already implemented the 2014 Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, a major part of the United Nations sustainable development goals. This law claims that natural groundwater is a "shared" resource owned and controlled by the state.

California farmers no longer own the water under their land and cannot make decisions on how best to preserve their crops during times of drought. This is the first time that rural well owners will be required to measure and report their pumping practices. In the past, the state tracked electricity consumption and used aerial photos to monitor how much water was being extracted from underneath private farmland. Now the state is taking full control.

At least 140 groundwater basins will be monitored by the state to ensure the sustainability of groundwater supplies over the long haul. These new controls will limit the amount of water that farmers can pump from underground aquifers. By controlling the amount of water farmers can pump, the state will be able to engineer crop loss, food shortages and famine, while directing water resources where they want them to go. Farmers will have to plan their fields accordingly and limit their crop production because their access to water is about to be monitored and constricted by the authoritarian California government.