It’s the dead of winter, but when it comes to water, Paris, Arkansas is already planning for summer’s water shortages.

Jim O’Bar, the head of Utilities in Paris, says, “Summer is tough for us.”

The Paris water plant provides for 10,000 people and several hundred poultry houses. Last summer, they had a drought and they don’t want that to happen again. O’Bar explains, “When we have trouble is if people are trying to use three million gallons a day, and if we have any kind of catastrophe then we’re going to have to turn somebody off.”

Paris officials have big plans to expand this plant, but in the mean time, there are things you can do to help conserve water.

O’Bar says, “You don't want to see people watering their yards at 2:00 in the afternoon, and letting the water run down the street. You’d rather water after dark, late in the afternoons, where it does some good anyway and just don't waste it.”