Multiple public water systems (PWSs) in Texas have either had to interrupt their services or are at risk of having their services interrupted given water shortages brought on by drought conditions. For many, they have implemented restrictions on water consumption to make the most out of dwindling supplies.

According to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ), water service has been interrupted for four PWSs, which serve a combined population of over 47,000 people. Sixteen other PWSs are at risk of having their services interrupted due to being without water in at most 180 days. Five of those systems could be without water within 45 days, two could be without water withing 90 days, and the remaining nine could be without water within 180 days. The PWS for the city of Blanco is among the utilities that could be without water in less than 45 days. Adding to its woes, Blanco’s PWS experienced a pipe break late last week, which prompted it to implement "Stage 6" water restrictions –  the highest emergency level. This meant all industrial and recreational water had to end while the water company worked to repair the pipe. By Saturday morning, all the PWSs’ tanks were full, but out of an abundance of caution the city maintained the restrictions. By Monday it moved from Stage 6 to 5, banning resident water consumption outside of indoor use, as well as landscape irrigation.

Blanco has seen levels at a nearby lake on which it depends for its water supply decline for months, a situation that is being experienced in other parts of Texas due to prolonged and widespread drought. According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, the entirety of Blanco County (which includes the city of the same name) is experiencing either extreme or exceptional drought, the two highest levels of drought on its intensity scale. The worst drought conditions in Texas are focused in the central part of the state, including and largely to the north of San Antonio. But many other parts of the state are experiencing significant levels of drought, from abnormally dry up to exceptional drought. The extreme heat Texas has been experiencing lately has contributed to these conditions.

Read more at CBS News and Fox 7 Austin.