The Argus - Let's Save It

From April 5, Sussex residents have been asked to turn off their taps as the hosepipe ban comes into effect. As the county’s residents are told to keep their gardens green with watering cans and wash their cars with buckets, The Argus has teamed up with South East Water to spur everyone into water saving action.

Following two years of abnormally dry weather, and the driest March on record, water resources are extremely low.

In parts of Sussex the groundwater sources are at exceptionally low levels.

The most recent data from the Environment Agency shows that groundwater levels near the River Rother are just one sixth their normal levels.

Around the Ouse water levels are at a quarter of their normal levels, and around the Arun just a third full.

Meanwhile utility firms have been taking painstaking steps to keep the county’s reservoirs at Ardingly and Arlington from drying up.

Everyone is suffering the same from months of drought which means we all need to do our bit to conserve supplies.

A hosepipe uses 66 times as much water as a watering can. By adding a sprinkler a hose can become twice as wasteful.

The Argus is joining forces with South East Water to ask the county’s residents to save every drop they can and today launches our Let’s Save It campaign to encourage Sussex to survive the drought.

South East Water’s head of water resources and environment Lee Dance said: “We are close to the worst drought ever.

“Over the past two years it has been particularly dry.

“This winter was very dry and the winter before we didn’t have much more.

“Groundwater is the most important part of our supply chain we need to replenish reserves over the winter. The problem after low rainfall last winter was that we started the year with lower than normal levels.

“Since September every single month has had significantly below average rainfall except December.

“That would normally be hard to recover from but added to this there has been just 30% to 50% of the normal amount of rain in most months over the winter.”

Mr Dance said that since October last year South East Water has been starting to put into place measures to prevent a worsening drought crisis, applying to the Government for Drought Orders, trying to stop leakage and investing in new infrastructure.

It is hoped that by rolling out water meters to all of its customers by 2020 they will be able to reduce demand by 10%.

Since the utility firm started warning customers about the possibility of a hosepipe ban last autumn, customers have been cutting back on their usage.

Mr Dance added: “We would like to thank our customers for doing their bit.

“The little things do make a difference.