Desert Water Agency was founded as a groundwater management agency in the western Coachella Valley in 1961 and started providing water service to customers in Palm Springs and Cathedral City in 1968. DWA is one of only 29 state water contractors in California. This gives the agency the ability to import water, which is used to recharge our groundwater basin (the main source of water in our desert). DWA currently has about 23,000 domestic water connections that serve approximately 90,000 people (including seasonal population).
