Nicholas Kristof says we should let the market allocate water

See When One Almond Gulps 3.2 Gallons of Water. Excerpts:

"One study found that 88 percent of water in 17 Western states was used by agriculture. Only 7 percent was consumed by homes."

"California produces a bounty of almonds, which gulp about 3.2 gallons of water for each almond, according to a 2019 study."

"A central problem is that water isn’t allocated by market price but inefficiently through a muddle of irrigation rights that were mostly awarded on a first-come-first-serve basis. This water is so cheap that there is little attempt to conserve or develop technical innovations to use less water.

Many of the shortages would disappear if water were rationed the way goods normally are in a market economy, by price: Farmers would not irrigate almond orchards if they had to buy 3.2 gallons of water at market rates to produce each almond.

Mostly we’re a market economy, but water allocation resembles a 1970s Soviet system, with the same lack of price signals and consequently the same inefficiency. Any rationalization of the system and raising of irrigation costs would be wrenching — consider a farm family that has gone into debt to plant a large almond orchard — but there is no other sensible path forward."