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East Texas gets plenty of rain some places 60 inches or more per year. South Texas along the coast from port lavaca south much less and the evap rates are high for surface waters.

This is the hard core science of surface water balance in Texas. When we say hydrogeology this is what we mean.

https://www.caee.utexas.edu/prof/maidment/gishydro/seann/texas/sect5.htm

The east of the state has surplus runoff that if captured could be sent West hundreds of thousands of acre feet of water per year. This doesn’t include the recharge from all that rain into the big three aquifers in the east. The Trinity, Carrizo-Wilcox, and Gulf Coast aquifers all hold large amounts of water that could be produced sustainably due to the rain balance in the east. The opposite is true in the West everything is in deficit in the West. It’s lost past time for Texas to accept this fundamental issue and build large pipelines from east to west and from the coast to the population centers in the semi arid Central Texas area of not feasible to get the land needed for east West pipes. Captured already fresh water is always going to be cheaper than desal. San Antonio is already pulling water from groundwater 130+ miles away, Dallas pulls from Lake Tacoma 80 miles away and is looking east 120 miles to groundwater and Sabine River basin surface water too.

Simple fact is Texas is the fastest growing state in the nation with Georgetown Texas being the fastest growing city of anywhere in the USA. No amount of conservation will replace the need for more raw water supply.