Stage Two Water Restrictions, effective or useless?

Since the start of 2011 and going into 2012; Texas is being recorded as the worst drought in it's state history. What precaution measures are we taking as a state to minimize water use do you ask? Well as of right now we are in a so called "Stage 2 water restriction" which was supposed to take into affect September 6 of 2011. So what exactly are these restrictions? Does anyone know without looking them up? Probably not, but here is a list of what SHOULD be enforced, although I have my doubts as to if they are even being acknowledged.

The restriction states:

• Residents may only water outdoors once a week. Homes with odd-numbered addresses can water on Saturday, even-numbered on Sunday.
• Businesses and multifamily units may only water outdoors once a week. Those with odd numbered-addresses can water on Tuesday and those with even-numbered addresses can water on Friday.
• Automatic sprinklers can only operate before 10 a.m. on your watering day. Hose-end sprinklers can be used before 10 a.m. and after 7 p.m.
• Hand watering can be done at any time on any day of the week.
• If you wash your car at home, do it on your watering day before 10 a.m. and after 7 p.m.
• You must use a hand-held bucket or a hose equipped with a shutoff nozzle; you may use a waterless cleaning product or a commercial carwash to wash your car on any day at any time.
• No charity carwashes are permitted unless a waterless cleaning product is used instead of water.
• No ornamental fountains may be operated except to provide aeration for aquatic life. Automatic fill valves for pools and ponds must be turned off as well.

Now tell me, has anyone seen a neighbor, while driving by watering their yard, or washing their car outside of these guidelines? Furthermore has anyone seen the use of water in any way shape or form outside the judgement call of what is "necessary"? My opinion is this; these guidelines are probably not well known if known at all, and fact of the matter is IF we are spending tax dollars to implement a patrol through the police department to monitor people and their use of water, that no one will take it seriously. Those guidelines are set up for failure because fact of the matter is no one is going to follow these, and if a cop just so happens to see someone washing their car or lawn during the wrong time, chances are they aren't going to stop and write a citation.

Rather than spending money on restrictions that aren't being monitored and CAN'T be monitored as closely as they should be, start monitoring water bills, start monitoring all the automated sprinkler systems, start monitoring something measureable rather than monitoring something that is too wide of a spectrum to keep intact.

My final statement is this, I encourage you to ask your neighbor, or even fellow officer what or if they know of the "stage 2 restrictions" we are under right now. Hopefully sometime soon someone in Texas Government will come to the realization that these restrictions are not going to be enforced, or at least not well, and hopefully reform how to conserve water and enforce restrictions at a city wide level.