Sacramento-area water customers are answering the call to reduce their consumption during this drought. Sort of.

The Regional Water Authority says water use went down 18 percent between January and June of this year, a couple points off the 20-percent mark that the state and local communities have set as a goal.

Meanwhile, water customers in the city proper have reportedly trimmed their usage by 22 percent, says the Department of Utilities.

“Let’s keep it up,” Amy Talbot, the authority’s water-efficiency program manager, said in a release. “Conserving water is going to be even more important as we continue in the hot summer months.”

Some water providers are also heeding new statewide conservation guidelines that took effect on July 29, according to a survey the authority referenced in the release.

Ten providers already have mandatory watering restrictions in place, while another seven are in the process of transitioning from voluntary to mandatory watering restrictions, or have already. Four providers had not yet complied, but were in talks with their boards and regulators about doing so, the release states.

The state Water Resources Control Board has directed water providers to make voluntary water restrictions mandatory, and has the ability to charge violators $500 for wasteful practices.