It's an axiom in business: If you have a product that you can't keep in stock, check your prices. You're selling you're product at too low a price.

In this case, water is the product, and the reason it's in short supply is because it's being sold too cheaply, mainly to farmers who turned desert into farm fields. And during times of drought, naturally they use more water because it's still being sold at the same price.

If you set the price of water to realistic levels, farmers certainly won't like it, and they'll use less water and more drought-resistant crops.

The free market always has a solution.

Onward and upward,
airforce