Create financing incentives that would encourage local businesses, building managers and owners to regularly conduct maintenance that includes checks for water losses, such as checking for leaky pipes and faucets. Increasing water use efficiency can prevent or alleviate drought impacts.

Cover credits: Children in woods, Steve Hillebrand. Horse-eye jacks, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Painted Hills, Jane Pellicciotto. Pelican, George Andrejko/ Arizona Game and Fish Department

Clockwise from top: Town of Cary Town of Chapel Hill David Hunt, Orange County City of Durham Higgins Spooner, “Downtown Raleigh NC at night” (2018)