From: Marktcards (84.92.179.110)
Subject: Sub-Saharan Africa? No, this is Kent!
Date: February 2, 2006 at 4:22 am PST

· Two dry winters in a row leave supplies in crisis
· Millions could face tough restrictions this summer

Bewl Water in Kent is southern Britain's largest reservoir but
yesterday afternoon it was 36% full and had shrunk to just over
half the size it should be at this time of year. Its water
level was 7.6m (25ft) down on normal, its saucer sides were
deeply cracked, and stumps of old oaks last seen in the great
drought of 1976 poked through the dry mud.

Tony Lloyd, head ranger of Southern Water, whose family's farm
was inundated when Bewl was built in 1975, admitted he was
worried.
"This is the worst dry spell in over 100 years," he said, on a
small boat skimming the lake which covers over 300 hectares.

Last year Tonbridge, in Kent, got just 16 inches (406mm) - less
than Jerusalem and parts of Namibia and Somalia.

"It is highly likely we will have a full hosepipe ban soon.
Some of our boreholes are at record lows," said a spokesman for
Sutton and East Surrey Water company which supplies water for
650,000 people in the Croydon, Gatwick Airport area.

"In fact, we are drier than Saudi Arabia in terms of what water
we have available per person."

• full article

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