{"id":61833,"date":"2026-01-28T18:25:16","date_gmt":"2026-01-28T23:25:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=61833"},"modified":"2026-01-28T18:25:25","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T23:25:25","slug":"southwest-florida-water-management-district-declares-severe-water-shortage-implements-watering-restrictions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2026\/01\/28\/southwest-florida-water-management-district-declares-severe-water-shortage-implements-watering-restrictions\/","title":{"rendered":"Southwest Florida Water Management District declares \u2018severe\u2019 water shortage, implements watering restrictions"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Southwest Florida Water Management District declared a \u201csevere\u201d water shortage on Tuesday.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" data-dominant-color=\"4b9ebb\" data-has-transparency=\"false\" style=\"--dominant-color: #4b9ebb;\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"287\" height=\"175\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1110px) 100vw, 1110px\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/images-9.webp?resize=287%2C175&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-61834 not-transparent\"\/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The governing board voted in favor of a modified phase II \u201csevere\u201d water shortage due to dry conditions throughout the region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">All residents, including private wells, are restricted to one-day-per-week watering restrictions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The restrictions apply to the following counties and areas:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Citrus County<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>DeSoto County<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Hardee County<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Hernando County<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Hillsborough County<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Manatee County<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Pasco County<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Pinellas County<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Polk County<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Sarasota County<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Sumter County<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Portions of Charlotte, Highlands and Lake counties<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>City of Dunellon and The Villages in Marion County<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Portion of Gasparilla Island in Lee County from Feb. 8 through July 1.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The district received below-average rainfall during its summer rainy season and currently has a 13-inch regional rainfall deficit compared to the average 12-month total, officials said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Residents should check with their city or county to find out their watering day. Below is the standard schedule, according to the water district.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If your address (house number) ends in\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>\u20260 or 1, water only on Monday<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>\u20262 or 3, water only on Tuesday<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>\u20264 or 5, water only on Wednesday<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>\u20266 or 7, water only on Thursday<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>\u20268 or 9*, water only on Friday<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>and locations without a discernible address<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">To learn more about the water shortage order,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.swfwmd.state.fl.us\/business\/epermitting\/district-water-restrictions\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">click here.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Southwest Florida Water Management District declared a \u201csevere\u201d water shortage on Tuesday. The governing board voted in favor of a modified phase II \u201csevere\u201d water shortage due to dry conditions&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":61834,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"12","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":true,"token":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvaTAud3AuY29tXC9sYWtlbGFuZGdhemV0dGUuaW5mb1wvbmV3c1wvd3AtY29udGVudFwvdXBsb2Fkc1wvMjAyNlwvMDFcL2ltYWdlcy05LndlYnA_Zml0PTI4NyUyQzE3NSZzc2w9MSIsInR4dCI6IlNvdXRod2VzdCBGbG9yaWRhIFdhdGVyIE1hbmFnZW1lbnQgRGlzdHJpY3QgZGVjbGFyZXMgXHUyMDE4c2V2ZXJlXHUyMDE5IHdhdGVyIHNob3J0YWdlLCBpbXBsZW1lbnRzIHdhdGVyaW5nIHJlc3RyaWN0aW9ucyIsInRlbXBsYXRlIjoiaGlnaHdheSIsImZvbnQiOiIiLCJibG9nX2lkIjoxNjMwNDA2NjF9.Par1MkLw9gd_eymV0X1Krs_6kYW7SPhI_Zyiv3_xxQ8MQ"},"version":2,"attached_media":[{"id":61834,"url":"http:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/images-9.webp","type":"image\/jpeg"}]},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[12,14],"tags":[13386,13385],"class_list":["post-61833","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local","category-news","tag-implements-watering-restrictions","tag-southwest-florida-water-management-district-declares-severe-water-shortage"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61833","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61833"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61833\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":61835,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61833\/revisions\/61835"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61834"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61833"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61833"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61833"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}