California Governor Jerry Brown defends drought management

As California struggles through the fourth year of a historic drought, Governor Jerry Brown is taking measures to preserve the state's dwindling water supply.

Already he has proposed fining those who waste water as much as $10,000 a day. But his critics say he hasn't done enough to stop the large-scale use of water by agricultural corporations, many of whom drill deep into the state's water table.

But as Brown told the BBC's Alastair Leithead, the "complexity of California", which stretches from Mexico to Oregon, "doesn't lend itself to a quick Leninist assertion of state power. This is a more decentralised, more private-section world we live in."