South East Water has announced a ban on hosepipe and sprinkler use for its customers in Kent and Sussex.

The ban will start on 12 August, with an end date that has yet to be decided.

It comes just days after Southern Water announced the first hosepipe ban of the year for customers in Hampshire and Isle of Wight. That ban starts this Friday.

South East Water said its ban is necessary to make sure there is enough water for essential use and to protect the environment, adding that the ban would reduce the amount of water taken from “already stressed local water sources”.

It said: “This has been a time of extreme weather conditions across the UK.

“Official figures show this is the driest July on record since 1935 and the period between November 2021 and July 2022 has been the driest eight-month stint since 1976.

“During July in the South East, we have only seen 8% of average rainfall for the month, and the long term forecast for August and September is for similar weather.”

It added: “The demand for water this summer has broken all previous records, including the COVID lockdown heatwave.

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“We have been producing an additional 120 million litres of water a day to supply our customers, which is the equivalent of supplying a further four towns the size of Maidstone or Eastbourne, daily.”

South East Water supplies 520 million litres of water every day to 2.2 million customers.

Its water is drawn from more than 250 boreholes, six rivers and six reservoirs.