A water firm has advised its customers to have shorter showers and let their lawns go brown after England experienced the driest spring since 1893.
Southern Water serves about 2.6 million customers across the south of England, including in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight.
It said a prolonged dry spell has impacted the local chalk streams and the Test and Itchen rivers, which supply most of the south’s water.
The company warned if river levels kept dropping, it might need to bring in hosepipe bans or stop using such streams altogether.