Quick Answer: California has a real water problem. It’s because we’ve given out too many surface water rights, pumped too much groundwater, and climate change is making droughts worse. We’re working on solutions like more water recycling, building more desalination plants, storing water underground, and making conservation a must. But in dry years, we need every single one of these approaches, all at once, to close the gap between how much water we have and how much we need.