system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: ELI5:How have desert societies in Africa and the Middle East survived for so long, while a few months without water in the American southwest has taken a seemingly enormous toll.
gpt
The big problem with the droughts in California is that they have created an area with an artificially abundant source of water. People in California have been living for years as if the state were not largely very arid, pumping water in from the rest of the state to support agriculture, golf courses and general wastefulness by people in general. Now that the parts of the state that supply this water are not getting replenished, reservoirs and ground water sources are quickly drying up as the need for all this water in areas that we've created continue to need water that just isn't there.

In desert societies, they existed before the technology existed to bring large amounts of water from elsewhere was invented. Their culture, architecture, and city planning has evolved without access to large amounts of water, so they are (generally) much more sustainable and realistic in regards to their water usage.