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Drought order introduced

27/05/2006

Today marked the beginning of the first drought order in England for 11 years as 270,000 properties in Surrey faced bans on a variety of water activities.

Households in the Sutton and east Surrey area will have to make do without being able to fill their swimming pools, use hosepipes to wash their cars and water their gardens.

Parks and sports grounds like cricket pitches and golf courses have also been affected by the drought order – while even clowns are complaining because they will not be able to use buckets of water in their routines.

Justifying their decision to implement a drought order, Sutton and East Surrey Water explained that their water reserves were encountering an unusually dry period – the driest for nearly a century.

Unlike other regional water companies, the Surrey firm have won the approval of the government's Environment Agency, which believes that much of the south of the UK may be forced into using standpipes for the first time since the infamous drought of 1976.

Despite this month being the wettest May for 23 years Met Office officials believe the recent downpours will have little effect on reservoir levels.

Recent rainfall is taken up by vegetation and takes long period of time to filter through underwater aquifers, meteorologists point out, meaning that for the people of Surrey there is little hope for any lifting of the drought order just yet.

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