Deven Upadhyay is the assistant general manager and executive officer for the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, which provides water to 19 million people. We asked Upadhyay to tell us how Met is handling California’s recent precipitation whiplash—and what future improvements might be in the works. Met has seen big declines in State Water Project deliveries in recent years and the potential for significant cuts in Colorado River supplies. What kinds of challenges does this pose? First, it helps to understand how the Metropolitan system works and how it interacts with local systems in Southern California. We operate a giant network of pipes and facilities that allows us to move water around the region. We import water from two sources: the Colorado River, via the Colorado River Aqueduct, and the northern Sierra, via the State Water Project (SWP). …