The prolonged drought understandably has North Carolinians worrying about cost and inconvenience, with a potential for serious disruptions, if substantial rains don't fall soon. Rationed water is likely to be expensive water. Things were dire during the last drought, in 2002, but not as bad as this year and not as late in the year, when tropical weather and autumn rains usually have replenished municipal reservoirs. And forecasters say the state may be in for an especially dry spring, too.

Sure, there was worrying during the drought of 2002 as well. Like this year, voluntary and then mandatory conservation measures were clamped on communities across the state. But the rains came, and were as effective at ending the drought as they were at washing away any sense that conserving precious drinking water should continue and that towns should take steps to make conservation a habit. The importance of having a nice green lawn took priority soon enough.

It's easy to understand why, particularly in urban areas like the Triangle. Except for occasional periods (southern Orange County in the 1960s and 1970s, for instance), the region has always had sufficient supplies.

So even when sprinklers were turned off in fall 2002, they could be back on full blast the next year, even, in some cases, during a rain storm. It's also tricky -- some would say penurious -- to tell people to conserve water when Raleigh's Falls Lake or Durham's Little River reservoirs are filled to the brim.

That increasingly won't be the case, largely because of the massive influx of new residents to North Carolina's urban areas, which rely on reservoirs, not wells. State demographers say nearly 9.5 million people will live here in 2010, up from just over 8 million in 2000. Wake County will grow more than 43 percent (more than 270,000 residents) over the period, to 900,072. Nearly 39,000 more people will be drawing water from Durham's reservoirs by 2010, an increase of 17 percent.

Add to that the fact that North Carolina suffers from the lack of large rivers crisscrossing the state. And Mother Nature occasionally -- and unpredictably -- puts a stopper in the rain clouds.

After the Drought of '02, Raleigh wisely conducted a study of its water service, and it developed a series of sensible and modest measures to stretch supplies without stressing residents. Charge more, proportionately, to households and businesses that use more. Hire a full-time staff to oversee and encourage conservation across the city. Implement year-round conservation, which Cary has done successfully since 2000. Cary also has developed a system of delivering clean but less-treated water for golf courses and other intensive uses where potable water is not required.

Raleigh has adopted only some of the recommendations. Prudence and the rigor of this year's drought say the city ought to revisit the ones that so far have been overlooked. Other Triangle communities could borrow Raleigh's recommendations, or Greensboro's. That city adopted graduated water rates and has pushed conservation hard. Even with a growing customer base, its average water use is down and revenues are up.

Water-saving measures don't seem to hurt towns, either. Cary and Chapel Hill-Carrboro are among the more desirable addresses in the Triangle despite being among the most careful water stewards. And they have some of the lushest lawns in the region.