Did you know that in California, there’s a human right to affordable water? In 2012, Gov. Jerry Brown signed Assembly Bill 685, adding this language to the state Water Code: “every human being has the right to safe, clean, affordable, and accessible water adequate for human consumption, cooking and sanitary purposes.”

The “affordable” part seems to be ignored. Today (April 8), the board of directors of the Metropolitan Water District is expected to approve a Climate Adaptation Master Plan for Water, or CAMP4W, a framework for spending massive amounts of money and then raising rates and property taxes to pay for it.

On its website, the Metropolitan Water District says it is “committed to offsetting the costs of our strategic climate adaptation investments through creative cost-sharing partnerships and the pursuit of additional state and federal funding.” Good luck. We note that the federal and state budget climate has changed.

Yet the MWD is plunging ahead to commit Southern Californians to higher rates and property taxes in order to pay for the higher costs of “climate adaptation investments.”

Last April, the MWD board approved a two-year budget that raised rates by 8.5% per year in 2025 and 2026 and doubled the property tax rate that MWD charges property owners in its service area from 0.0035% to 0.007%. The authority for this charge stems from voter approval of bonds for the State Water Project in 1960, before the passage of Proposition 13 in 1978. Prop. 13 limited the property tax rate to 1% but allowed that rate to be exceeded to repay debt previously approved by voters.

The ongoing trick is to make new expenses sound like part of the State Water Project.

In addition to the property tax hike, MWD’s water rates are going up every year for the foreseeable future. A presentation last April by the Finance and Asset Management Committee projected 11.5% annual rate hikes in 2027 and 2028 followed by 4% and 5% increases through 2034.

Where’s that human right to affordable water now?

“The difficult reality is, our costs have risen while revenues have dropped, so we need to take the fiscally responsible step of adjusting our rates,” Metropolitan General Manager Adel Hagekhalil said at the time, while professing to “understand the impact rate increases can have on businesses and residents.”

The other “difficult reality” is that a few years ago Metropolitan called for “emergency conservation,” and compliance with that demand reduced water use and revenues. Then the rains came, which also reduced water use and revenues. The result? Higher rates, no matter what.

The MWD has plans to develop an update to its “business model” that will make it less dependent on fluctuating water sales, but it’s not clear what that will mean. Higher property taxes?

What is clear is that major capital expenditures will take place through the Climate Adaptation Master Plan for Water, including, potentially, the Delta Conveyance Project. MWD’s budget currently funds environmental planning work for the tunnel idea. It may never be built, but a little bit of every water bill you pay goes toward hoping and dreaming of it, along with the planning and construction of other large-scale climate investments that will drive water rates higher.

Affordable water is a human right in California. Maybe it’s time we had a Master Plan for Affordable Water.