Climate change and Major house-building programmes are placing an additional strain on supplies in the South East, where some reservoirs are only 40 per cent full, at a time of year when experts say levels should be nearer 90 per cent.
In March 2006 a water company in Kent applied for “water scarcity status” and was given the go-ahead by government to force 65,000 householders to install water meters.
At the time the Environment Agency said they were in favour of compulsory metering in Southern England, and although this caused some controversy, the environment minister insisted that water meters would not be compulsory in the UK accept where needed in areas suffering from water shortages.
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