[dragonwriter]

> There are rice paddies surrounding the capital city of Sacramento.

Rice paddies don't consume lots of water (flooding rice improves yield, but the rice doesn't consume most of the water, it's still available for downstream uses.)

> Why do we keep asking residents to sacrifice for even trivial pleasurers like swimming, when it makes no difference at all?

Because if you cut agricultural use, and thereby the tax base, residents will have to make sacrifices, too.