LOCAL water company South East Water has ended its hosepipe ban for Kent and Sussex after three and a half months, after heavy rainfall last month.
It follows moves by other companies, such as Southern Water and Thames Water, which cancelled their Temporary Use Bans (TUBs) on November 4 and 22 respectively.
It had been feared that the TUB would remain in place in Kent and Sussex into the New Year, following the driest summer on record for more than 40 years.
However, the water companies said that during the first week of November, the area saw 107 per cent of the total long-term average monthly rainfall and by November 20, there had been close to two months of rainfall in just three weeks.
Lee Dance, Head of Water Resources for South East Water said: “In July, the South East received only eight per cent of average rainfall and demand for water from our 1.4 million customers in Kent and Sussex was exceptional.
He continued: “I would like to say thank you to our customers for adhering to the restrictions and finding ways to cut down on their water use at a time that not only were our supplies in reservoirs and in the ground under immense pressure, but so was their local environment too.
“Now, due to the consistent rainfall in the past four weeks we can lift our Temporary Use Ban as we have seen more than 2.5 billion litres of water run into Ardingly Reservoir in West Sussex, resulting in it now being close to 75 per cent full.
“Although there is normally a lag between rainfall and groundwater recovery, with the soils much wetter than they would normally be at this time of year, the rain we have had and are expecting, will more easily seep down and refill the water table, allowing levels to start to rising back towards normal levels.
