Water companies across southern and eastern England are to introduce hosepipe bans amid drought conditions.
Seven firms say they will impose water restrictions after two unusually dry winters left reservoirs, aquifers and rivers below normal levels.
Southern Water, South East Water, Thames Water, Anglian Water, Sutton and East Surrey, Veolia Central and Veolia South East are to enforce restrictions.
The drought-affected areas are the south-east of England and East Anglia.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-17340844
London and Southern water bans hosepipes from the 5th April
Edited by user 12 March 2012 12:51:56(UTC) | Reason: Not specified
I'm in EA and served by one of the companys bringing in a ban, but the risk on there is Moderate for here
Is it a blanket ban across all the areas or what?
This is a map of where the hosepipe bans are in force currently
However the Environment Agency warns that drought conditions are expected to spread across more of England in coming weeks, unless strong rains arrive parts of Yorkshire likely to be named as officially in drought during the coming weeks.
Heavy rains could yet stave off the worst of the impacts, but forecasters are predicting drier than average conditions for the next few months.
In the worst case, this could lead to emergency measures such as supplies being limited to public standpipes in the street being implemented, as was the case during the 1976 drought.
Still trying to find any info. about Hampshire. The map indicates my area but its not been picked up by local BBC Hampshire reporting as of the last few minutes
I'm pretty sure that map above indicates i'm not in the orange zone, yet.
We're under Severn Trent here, so no hosepipe ban yet. Not that I have a hosepipe .......
The following compaines are to bring the hosepipe bans in from Thursday 5th April
Southern Water
South East Water
Thames Water
Veolia Central
Veolia South East
Sutton and East Surrey along with Anglian Water, are yet to confirm when the ban will come into force.
Severn Trent are pumping water from mid-north Wales, NW England into the dry Midlands which is helping keep water levels up for now.
Aww Andy...every man should have a hosepipe, it's as vital as a small garden shed, I feel for you
Its just a pitty other firms further south can't do this it would help in the short term
That's why there's no drought issues here, because Yorkshire Water reservoirs are mostly located in the Yorkshire Dales where it's very wet, meaning the reservoirs there are above average, so all good here.
Er because the south is further away from the Derbyshire peaks and the monitions of mid-north Wales.
The gap just east of the Isle of Wight is the area of the Portsmouth Water Company - which serves me in Chichester. What did we do to escape when all around us are suffering? Note that Portsmouth Water ons no reservoirs, it's ground water only but that itself is well down.
There's Southern Water and then Portsmouth Water Company which operates in a small area within Southern Water. Southern Water gets most of it's supplies from ground water and streams (Itchen, Test, etc) which rely more heavily on short/medium term rainfall amounts. Portsmouth Water is about 80% chalk aquifers and deep chalk spring sources, with some huge resevoirs under Portsdown Hill. When there's a shortage, Portsmouth Water always seem one of the last companies to introduce restrictions because of it's large reserves.
Yeah Matt Taylor was on about that on the 6 oclock news saying any rain in the summer just evaporates and doesn't really help
We also need 2 seasons with above average rain to be back out of drought.