Southern California water leader Shivaji Deshmukh will be the next general manager of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, the nation’s largest drinking water provider, following a unanimous vote today by the agency’s board of directors. Deshmukh will become Metropolitan’s 16th general manager in its nearly 100-year history, replacing retiring general manager Deven Upadhyay. … Deshmukh comes to Metropolitan from the Inland Empire Utilities Agency, one of Metropolitan’s 26 member agencies, where he has been general manager since 2019.