California has never been a stranger to drought. But the kind of water stress we’re seeing today—prolonged dry spells punctuated by devastating floods and snowpacks that vanish before summer—is testing the limits of our aging infrastructure and historical assumptions about who gets water, and who doesn’t.

Tucked into the southeastern edge of California, in the Mojave Desert, a project led by Cadiz, Inc. is gaining traction as a model not just for climate resilience, but for long-overdue water equity. It’s called the Mojave Groundwater Bank—and while it may not yet be a household name in Los Angeles, it probably should be.