THAMES Water has renewed calls for residents to save water amid concerns that the supply of the borough's reservoirs could be affected by on-going low rainfall.

Earlier this month water companies across the south east announced that a hosepipe ban would come into force on Thursday April 5 following months of unseasonably drier weather.

The Guardian met with Neil Vickers, who is Thames Water's east London region production manager, to find out more about the situation in the area.

He oversees the Coppermill Advanced Water Treatment Works in Coppermill Lane, Walthamstow, which provides a quarter of London's clean water supply, pumping out 560 million litres every day to millions of homes, including those in Waltham Forest, Redbridge and Epping Forest.

The treatment works are supplied by reservoirs across the region, such the King George's Royal Water Reservoir between Chingford and Enfield, which in turn get their water from a variety of sources in the capital.

Mr Vickers said: “At the moment our reservoirs are 98 per cent full, which is what you would normally expect.

“However they are supplied from the Thames and parts of the River Lee, along with our wells and boreholes.

"The problem is that in 19 out of the last 24 months we've had lower than average rainfall.

“We are anticipating that the Environment Agency will impose greater restrictions on the amount we can take from rivers this summer because of this, which will have an impact”.

As a contingency plan Thames Water is recommissioning five reserve sites, including ones in Wanstead, Chingford and Waltham Abbey, which will help plug the gap along with a hoped drop in usage from customers because of the hosepipe ban.

If that does not work further restrictions will be introduced in the worse case scenario.

“It's very, very difficult to predict how it will be this summer,” said Mr Vickers. “During the last major drought in 1976 it was dry for months and then in September it rained cats and dogs. That's something we're hoping for.

“We also anticipate an increase in demand over the Olympics, but we're confident we can cope.”

Visit www.thameswater.co.uk for more information and to apply for water-saving freebies for your home.

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