It’s been two decades since water officials have asked the public to cut back this much on water consumption. But with reservoirs at just a third of capacity and rain a rarity aside from the last couple weeks, the Santa Clara Valley Water District (SCVWD) is asking residents to dial down water use by 20 percent.

In 1993, city staff began looking at selling the Municipal Water system, which the City of San Jose currently owns. Municipal Water covers approximately 10 percent of the city serving portions of Council districts 2, 4 and 8. The main service provider, San Jose Water Company, a private company, provides approximately 80 percent of San Jose residents with water. The remaining 10 percent of water is provided to residents in District 2 by another private company, Great Oaks Water.

San Jose’s population is officially 1,006,892! 

1,006,892—confirmed by the State Department of Finance on April 30th of this year. I thought it would be interesting to share how San Jose has grown since 1950. Take a look: