Hosepipe ban is essential, UK officials say

Adam Vaughan in the Guardian (UK): Ministers, conservationists and water companies on Thursday morning defended the move to ban hosepipe use for 20 million people in the drought-hit south-east of England.

Many gardeners are expected to flout the ban, despite the penalty of a £1,000 fine for customers breaking the water restrictions imposed by seven water companies at midnight on Wednesday. But officials today stressed the importance of the ban, which has been caused by one of the worst droughts in southern England since 1976 and could last into the autumn, or even later.

Writing in the Guardian, the environment secretary, Caroline Spelman, said: "We have had two extremely dry winters. The current overall water resource position in some areas is comparable to that experienced around this time in 1976. Yes, the summer of '76 saw exceptional and sustained high temperatures, and the Met Office isn't yet able to make any reliable sort of forecasts about the likelihood of a 'barbeque summer' yet. But we can't make it rain, so we need to do all we can to conserve the public water supply now."

Anglian Water's director of water services Paul Valleley said: "We're trying incredibly hard to make sure we meet our water leakage target this year. We've employed an extra 62 people to look for leaks and we've got over 60 gangs out every single day repairing leaks whenever we possibly can. We're absolutely focused to minimise leakage. We realise that any leakage is basically unacceptable. We're really hoping customers will understand the need for this ban and will work with us to make sure they minimise the use of water in the home generally, not just using a hosepipe."...

Gardens at Chirk Castle, Wrexham, Wales, UK. Shot by Christine und Hagen Graf, Wikimedia Commons via Flickr, under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license