Hosepipe ban on way after dry February increases drought fear

Bosses at Thames Water, which supplies eight million people in London and the Thames Valley, have not decided exactly when a sprinkler and hosepipe ban will come into force, but industry sources said it would be “sooner rather than later”.

Although reservoirs in and around London are still full, levels are expected to drop sharply with the arrival of warmer spring weather. They can only be topped up from water from the Thames and the Lea rivers, which are running at “exceptionally low” levels. Some backup supplies can be created by a desalination plant at Beckton capable of providing up to 150 million litres of drinking water a day, enough for 900,000 people.

A Thames Water source said: “The real problem is we just don’t know what the summer is going to bring. If we get average rainfall then we should be fine but we have to prepare for the worst.” After a wet start to March, forecasters now predict a dry spell for the next few weeks.

The companies that serve the worst affected areas, stretching in an arc from Hampshire to East Anglia and Lincolnshire, are expected to appoint a “drought czar” to co-ordinate efforts to save water. The hosepipe ban will be the first in London since the summer of 2006, which followed a similar two-year period of below average rainfall.

A third dry winter on the trot, which has not happened since the 1780s in London, would mean much more severe measures such as limiting water supplies to as little as six hours a day or reducing water pressure

Londoners can expect a “balmy” early spring with mild and dry weather for the next month, forecasters said today. Temperatures will start rising into the mid teens centigrade by Sunday and will remain remarkably high for March into next week and beyond, according to the Met Office.

A huge anticyclone is building over the British Isles that will suck in tropical air from the Azores and deflect the fronts that bring rain to the north of the country, said a spokeswoman.

Current forecasts suggest that the settled spell will last beyond the traditional start of spring on March 21 through to the Easter long weekend beginning on April 6.