Responding to California’s statewide drought emergency and its own recent Water Supply Alert declaration, Metropolitan Water District’s Board of Directors today approved a regional communications, outreach and advertising campaign aimed at promoting greater water awareness and encouraging additional conservation.

Metropolitan’s board authorized up to $5.5 million annually for a three-year multi-pronged, multimedia campaign that will employ radio, television, print, on-line and outdoor advertising, along with an extensive media and community relations effort. The campaign will focus on the value of water, the need to conserve and the importance of investing now in water-use efficiency to prepare for the future.

“While there are no supply restrictions planned in Southern California this year, the unprecedented dry conditions throughout the state serve as a stark reminder that we all have a responsibility to do more with less,” said Metropolitan General Manager Jeffrey Kightlinger.

“Southern Californians have stepped up to the plate and made extensive regional investments over the past 20 years to diversify supplies and solidify water reliability, but there is no doubt the current drought is a call to re-double our conservation efforts,” Kightlinger added. “The drought has drawn the public’s attention to the fact that we live in a semi-arid climate that requires us to continue to make gains in water awareness and conservation practices.”

In response to Gov. Brown’s drought emergency declaration in January, Metropolitan’s board last month established a Water Supply Alert calling for increased awareness of supply conditions and extraordinary conservation throughout the district’s 5,200-square-mile service area.

Last month, the board also increased Metropolitan’s annual conservation and outreach budget by $20 million, of which $5.5 million was identified for the regional communication and outreach campaign.

Today’s board action authorizes an agreement with Fraser Communications to work with Metropolitan and the district’s member agencies to initiate a focused, strategic campaign. Funding for outreach in subsequent years would require board authorization.

Since 2008, Fraser has developed several multi-ethnic outreach and advertising campaigns for Metropolitan, with ads appearing on television, cable networks, radio, print and websites. As part of those past efforts, Fraser helped develop Metropolitan’s bewaterwise.com® and California Friendly® programs.

“Our past campaigns demonstrate a multimedia outreach effort can be highly effective in raising consumer awareness and improving the public’s understanding of the value of water, ways to conserve and the need to reinvest in our water systems to maintain and increase reliability,” Kightlinger said. “We expect a seamless start-up for this new campaign, which will allow for a rapid rollout that leads to immediate water savings.”

The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California is a cooperative of 26 cities and water agencies serving nearly 19 million people in six counties. The district imports water from the Colorado River and Northern California to supplement local supplies, and helps its members to develop increased water conservation, recycling, storage and other resource-management programs.