Bewl Water Reservoir December 2011

Kent’s water companies say because of two consecutive dry winters we could face a drought as bad as 1976 if large amounts of rain do not fall in the next three months

The county is facing imminent water restrictions such as hosepipe bans if we do not get heavy rain, with one water company saying that a drought is inevitable this year.

Despite recent snow, water companies say this has been one of the driest winters on record.

A spokesman for Thames Water, which supplies customers around Sevenoaks, said: “Ground water levels in parts of our region are lower than they were during the 1976 drought following below average rainfall for 18 of the last 23 months. It’s now not a case of whether we’ll be having a drought this year, it’s a case of when and how bad.”

There are five companies which supply water to customers in Kent. They draw their water from a number of sources including reservoirs, boreholes and chalk aquifers.

Bewl Water reservoir in west Kent is said to be less than 40 per cent full than it normally would be at this time of year. The lake, which supplies the Medway towns, Thanet and Hastings area, is managed by Southern water and also supplies South East Water.

Southern Water strategy manager Meyrick Gough said: “Our reservoirs have not refilled as we would have hoped so far this winter.

“The December rain helped but we now need similar amounts over February, March and April so our resources can recover in time for summer. This rain is particularly important as January was so dry.

“Our biggest reservoir, Bewl, doesn’t need to be full to the brim but we’d hope it can reach levels of 70 per cent before the end of the recharge season so we can avoid having to impose restrictions on customers’ water use.”

The company has said it will need a drought permit that would allow it to extract more water from the River Medway to help fill the reservoir.

The companies are urging customers to be careful with the amount of water they use if they are to avoid hosepipe and sprinkler bans in the summer.

Veolia Water Southeast supplies customers in Folkestone and Dover. Its head of operations Gavin McHale said: “We rely on boreholes taking water from chalk and gravel aquifers. These natural aquifers need to be recharged each year during the autumn, winter and spring to meet summer demand.

“So far we have had dry months in September, October and November, with each month having significantly below average rainfall. Although water levels in our sources are now no longer declining we still need further rainfall in February, March and April to replenish the chalk and gravel aquifers and bring our sources back to long term average levels.”

Campaigners say the situation shows the chronic lack of infrastructure needed to supply Kent’s growing population.

Andrew Ogden from Protect Kent said: “We are extremely concerned by this situation. Both the Government and local authorities must act to make sure that building within this water stressed area is sustainable and appropriate. Without action, drought orders may become a normal way of life.”

The campaign group said successive governments had discouraged water companies from making investment in large scale water resource schemes in an effort to minimise increases in charges to customers.

The Government is to hold a summit with water companies because of the worsening situation.

Lee Dance, head of water resources at South East Water, which supplies much of mid Kent, said: “We cannot rule out the possibility that we may have to ask for further special powers to abstract more water than we usually do from rivers, and also restrict customers’ non-essential use of water with sprinklers and hosepipes.”