RENEWED PLEA ON WATER USE

The company is hoping for a similar response this year, now that the region remains in the grip of the worst drought since 1933.

With a sunny June being followed by a heatwave start to July, the vital underground water sources which supply 70% of customers' demand, are under strain.

Explained Southern Water's Water Planning and Strategy Manager Meyrick Gough: "Much of the rainfall during May to October never gets to those sources. It is consumed by tree roots, vegetation and other factors such as evaporation - so we have to manage largely with what we have at the start of summer. Yet some of our underground sources are running at near record low levels already. We must do our best to conserve what we have. That's why the hosepipe restriction remains in place.

"When we introduced it in June of last year in Sussex and Kent customers saved enough water to meet the demands of 120,000 people every day for four months.

"We hope they will be as co-operative this year. If so we might be able to delay the introduction of further restrictions in the non essential use of water but we must all work together."

Meanwhile, Southern Water is working on over 50 schemes to make more water available, by reintroducing old wells or moving water more efficiently around its network.

Said Meyrick: "We are grateful to customers for their co-operation but we can't rely upon them to make all of the savings for us '“ which is why we're investing 20 million on these schemes to make nearly 100 million litres of 'new' water available to meet the needs of 625,000 people.

"We continue to give high priority to reducing leakage and have doubled the size of our leaks detection teams to find and repair more leaks. We also have a programme of free water-efficiency audits for businesses and schools and take every opportunity to promote the water conservation message."