WILTSHIRE IS SO DRY
WE need months of rain to get us back to normal.
WATER restrictions may be introduced soon as Lyneham and the country are experiencing month after month of below average rainfall figures and the country could be crippled by its worst drought in 100 years.

In the last fifteen months Lyneham has only had a total of 794mm rain, which is nearly 200 per cent below what is expected from the 30-year average. The last month, January 2006, which was one of the driest on record, only 24mm of rain fell accounting for 36% for a January average. Traditionally, the first month of the year is quite high for rainfall figures.

Reservoirs and underground supplies across huge swathes of the most densely populated areas are at historic lows as the country runs slowly out of water. We witness the riverbanks of the River Marsden in Chippenham cracking and a narrow stream passes through the Wiltshire town instead of river levels being well up on the banks.

This is the second successive winter in which rainfall has been markedly below normal and weather experts warned that there is little chance in the coming weeks of the rain needed to stave off drought.

February is statistically the driest month of the year and the cold dry snap which gripped much of the county over the latter two weeks of January, is predicted to continue during the Valentine’s Day period. The Thames is flowing at half the norm for winter and the rainfall in some water company areas, such as Yorkshire, Southern, Anglian and Severn Trent, has barely risen above half the long-term average since December 1st.

Many parts of the South-east have not seen a drier 14-month spell for more than a century, with only one month in that period having above average rainfall. As a result, many water companies seem resigned to introducing new restrictions by the early spring.

Over the last 14 months in Lyneham there has been 250 days, where rainfall has just dampened the rain gauges with less than 0.1mm in a twenty-four hour period. The most rainfall in this short period was October 2005, where only 91mm of monthly precipitation was recorded; fortunately this was 35% up on the three-decade average for an autumnal October.

Inevitable
These continued low rainfall figures and reservoir levels being at a concerning low levels, may lead to water restrictions being enforced, the drought persists. The restriction will include hosepipe and sprinkler bans, and drought orders may help water companies manage supplies. Further dry weather into February certainly will not help. Across the country, more than three million people in Sussex, Kent and Surrey are still living with water restrictions imposed since last summer.

Locally, it would take months of heavy rain to get us back to anything like normality. It is looking increasingly inevitable that we will have to have a full hosepipe ban. It could come quite sooner than we think and commercial car washes a likely casualty. Local water authorities are urging people to save water in the home and garden, and at work. It is a serious situation.

There are so many things we can all do. This includes choosing plants for the garden that can live in dry conditions. Many residents have fitted water butts to down pipes to save rain water for irrigating their horticultural wonders.

Pressure
The drought will also put pressure on firms to cut leaks. Thames Water loses more than 900million litres a day through leaks - one-third of all such losses in England and Wales - partly because of the state of the vast network of underground pipes dating back to Victorian times. It is spending £90million a year replacing pipes and tackling leaks but a spokesman said: "It is critical we get rain. We have not had water restrictions for 16 years but if we do not see any rainfall over the next few months we could not rule them out for this particular summer."