PANIC-BUYING has led to a water butt shortage as householders prepare to make the most of any rainfall during the predicted drought this summer.

Sixteen months of below average rainfall and hosepipe bans across the South East have led to the shortage at garden centres. Water companies and horticultural stores are scrambling for supplies from Britain’s small number of water butt makers, but many expect delays of up to eight weeks.

Last week Southern Water held a series of sales, offering 4,000 cut-price water butts. Queues formed and by early afternoon the company had sold out. A spokeswoman said: “Southern Water is putting in place measures to help the water butt supplier cope with the volume of demand.”

Colin Campbell-Preston, the managing director of Capital Gardens, a garden supplier in London and Hertfordshire, said: “It’s been unprecedented. I have been in this business for 20 years and I have never known this demand for water butts.”

He had expected to do well out of water butt sales this year, with hosepipe bans having been imposed on 13 million people, but was surprised by the response. Through its 110 outlets, Wyevale Garden Centres sold 1,000 water butts in the first three weeks of April last year. This time it sold more than 3,000. There was a knock-on increase in demand for watering cans, sales of which have increased by 36 per cent.

The clamour for water butts can also be heard in wetter parts. South West Water has not imposed a hosepipe ban, saying that it has enough to keep its customers hoses running for the rest of the summer. But sales of water butts, which it offers in partnership with a local company, have risen by 60 per cent.

“I suppose it’s all the publicity over the threat in the South East,” a spokeswoman said. “It’s also a drive to conserve cash. About 50 per cent of people down here are metered.”

Jonathan Straight, head of Straight Plc, one of Britain’s biggest water butt producers, said: “We have seen a change from our usual customer, who is typically an environmentally conscious person or a very keen gardener, to really anybody who wants to wash their car or collect water for their garden.”

Britain’s water butt-making capacity is limited: there is only a small number of manufacturers, and few water butt blow-moulding machines and patented moulds. Mr Straight said: “We’ve taken out some of our old moulds. That’s doubled capacity.”

In the rush to collect water, people are unwilling to abandon all sense of style. Householders, apparently, are asking themselves: does my butt look big in this garden? “We have a huge range of products, but people want something in their garden of a certain size and shape,” Mr Straight said.

His most popular water butt is a 190-litre version with a stand and a child-safe lid. This year’s colour is green. His company is having a couple of new moulds made for this summer, but they might not be ready before June.

In the meantime, he is looking to Italian and German water butt makers to help to fill the orders. “We’d do the same for them,” he said. “Some people may have to wait a little longer than the usual 28 days but we are doing all that we can.”

• As the reservoirs fail to fill, three companies that cover Sussex, Surrey and Kent are seeking to impose the most severe water usage restrictions in more than 15 years.

  GREEN SOLUTIONS

• Even in dry areas, 24,000 litres of water could be collected from the roof of a small house in a year
• A 200 sq m garden loses by evaporation about 4,820 litres every ten days in dry weather
• Domestic wastewater, as long as it coes not contain strong cleaning products, can be used in the garden
• Hedges, fences and other forms of shelter reduce evaporation caused by wind, and provide shade
• Mulching with a layer of organic matter or gravel at least 5cm thick, or using opaque mulching sheets, reduces the loss of moisture from the soil

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