Environment Agency warns of greater water restrictions

Despite the recent weather large parts of England remain in drought with water restrictions still in place.

Environment secretary Caroline Spelman has told the BBC’s Inside Out programme that standpipes could be needed in the streets next year if England has another dry winter.

Adrian McDonald, a professor of environmental management at the University of Leeds, said in the event of a third dry winter:

“You would be expecting measures to try and conserve water that would be quite dramatic.”

A spokesman for the Environment Agency told the BBC that as a result of recent rain, soil moisture deficits had decreased in all regions, with river flows normal for the time of year at over half their indicator sites.

But groundwater levels remain low and, the spokesman said, as spring becomes summer, most of the rain that falls either evaporates as temperatures rise or is taken up by plants.

Edited from the BBC news website