THE drought is off, at least for now, if you live anywhere but South London and Surrey.

This month is on course to be the wettest May on record and when the Government granted drought orders to two more water companies yesterday they both decided not to implement them.

Southern Water and Mid Kent Water’s actions confirmed what may have seemed obvious to anyone who has glanced out of their windows over the past few weeks.

Because of the rain, fewer people are watering their gardens, washing the car seems pointless and golf courses require less sprinkling, meaning that demand has dropped below the level it was at when the two companies applied for drought orders in the spring.

Although demand has fallen, the heavy rains have done little to replenish supplies, according to Ian Pearson, the Minister for the Environment. “Recent rainfall has not reduced the need for restrictions in the South East,” he said. “Reservoirs are nearly full but the region relies on groundwater for 70 per cent of its supply, and in the case of Mid Kent Water it’s 85 per cent. The winter recharge season is over, yet groundwater levels remain critically low, and the Environment Agency has advised that the rain we are seeing now will have little impact on these levels.”

A spokeswoman for the Environment Agency said: “May has been wet but one wet month won’t make up for two very dry winters. Ground water levels are still very low. Trees and other vegetation are sucking up all the water because they are growing. It’s possible that we won’t see any improvement in ground water till the autumn. We need to save water now and help to prevent further restrictions and further damage to the environment later this year.”

Sutton and East Surrey Water, which this month was granted the first non-essential use order for more than a decade, will now be the only company to enforce restrictions as of tomorrow.

A spokesman for the company, which supplies 650,000 people in South London and Surrey, said: “People make fun of the idea of a drought when it’s raining so much but a lot of that is ignorance.

“We are baffled by the other companies’ decision but, fair enough, it’s their choice. We have to enforce the order because we have got only one reservoir.

“We are measuring our bore holes but we can’t see any difference in the ground water levels so far.”

Les Dawson, the chief executive of Southern Water, one of Britain’s largest water companies, said that restrictions could be introduced later.

Hosepipe and sprinkler restrictions remain in place in the company’s Kent, Sussex and Isle of Wight supply areas.

There is no immediate prospect of the rainfall letting up and about 2.1 million people will head abroad for the Bank Holiday and half-term week.

Mainland Spain, the Canary and Balearic islands and Portugal are the best-selling short-haul destinations for the Bank Holiday weekend, according to the Association of British Travel Agents.

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