Water park sparks controversy in parched California

Dublin, California

ON a typical hard-hat tour of a major municipal construction project, city officials extol the venture's expansiveness and rave about how many citizens will benefit. But this city has taken a different approach to a nearly US$44 million recreational complex underway: Officials boast how small it is and how few people are expected to use it.

That is because Dublin is building a water park - in the middle of the worst drought in California's modern history.

The project was conceived more than a decade ago, when the snowpack was still thick on the Sierra Nevada, green lawns were a valued cultural touchstone and Californians could shower for as long as they liked, guilt-free.

At a ceremonial ground-breaking on March 6, webcams were unveiled to document the progress of the water park - or aquatic centre, as local officials call it - which is meant as a recreation station for the 52,000 residents of this city about 56 km inland from San Francisco. There is only one public pool in Dublin, and many residents commute long distances to work in Silicon Valley and elsewh…