Los Angeles lurches from one crisis to another. While this thirsty desert city needs a stable water supply during summer, floods often cause widespread havoc in the winter. Developers have now come up with a novel idea to tide over the water woes.

A group of about 20 environmentalists, politicians, community groups and government agencies have come together, calling itself the Sun Valley Watershed Stakeholders Group, to develop methods to save seasonal rainwater. This will now flow below the streets into a new million-gallon cistern. The water will then be used to irrigate trees in summer.

The group is also planning to set up a subterranean stormwater treatment plant below a city park and use two gravel mine pits as water retention basins. There are plans to install individual water-saving systems in houses and commercial establishments as well.

The implementation of these schemes is expected to begin in 2003. At present, Los Angeles is spending more than $150 million in importing water from other areas in summer, while excess rainwater is dumped untreated into the Pacific Ocean.