Community chambers of commerce gathered Triangle-area water managers together this week to celebrate surviving the drought that only in the past few weeks has relaxed its scary grip. The drought was particularly severe, by some estimates the worst in North Carolina's recorded history.

And in fact it persists to the west, where some areas aren't exactly swimming in abundant supplies, underscoring the necessity of continued careful water use.

The state and Triangle water agencies in some cases were slow off the mark, but eventually they took the kinds of serious steps that would have stretched for months what little water was left. If residents were worried about where their families' next sip of water might come from, city administrators at least gave them some reason to be reassured.

There's also reason for relief that governments now are putting water supplies into a better long-term perspective. In presentations made during the gathering, water system operators noted that they are looking into how to move away from the use of treated water for watering lawns.

That's long been the common practice, but the drought put into sharp focus the fact that people were spraying a scarce and indispensible resource on the ground. Literally.

Durham this month approved a smarter way of charging for water, the so-called tiered system, something Cary and some other communities already have in place. Raleigh is moving in that direction, and the City Council needs to make the commitment. By charging more as usage increases, cities give their customers incentive to save. Tiered rates also send the message that conservation is important.

The water poobahs say drastic increases in the region's population weren't a factor in the water supply squeeze, but that's hard to swallow.

For sure, reservoirs wouldn't have dropped as quickly had there been fewer thirsty people to serve and lawns to water when the heavens dried up last year. Falls Lake, Raleigh's water supply, and Little River, Durham's main reservoir, might have been designed with population growth in mind. But that growth has been explosive, especially in Wake County.

It also was brought up at the conference that Triangle municipalities are making plans for new drinking water supplies, which is prudent. But that just points to the fact that city planners recognize that the region is in for more growth in coming decades, and that those new residents will have their effect on current supplies.

It was good to hear area officials saying emphatically that municipalities will need to make sure their water systems are interconnected. That should help in droughts and other emergencies, when one city needs to dip into its neighbors' supplies for the sake of public health.

Raleigh in particular found itself behind the interconnection 8-ball when the drought was at its worst. Regional cooperation has always been a good idea, but it often takes an emergency for such truths to surface.