After the driest 12 months since 1976, Bewl Water, in Lamberhurst, Kent, is currently only 40 per cent full. Normally at this time of year it would be nearer 90 per cent full.
Southern Water applied to the agency for emergency powers to help refill it, allowing it to take more water from the River Medway, under certain conditions.
Meyrick Gough, Southern Water’s water planning and strategy manager, said: “Kent is experiencing the driest 10 months since 1888 so we welcome the Environment Agency’s decision to allow us to pump more water into Bewl in time for the summer.
“The reservoir is a key resource. It supplies not only Southern Water’s customers in the Medway towns, Thanet and Hastings but is also used by other water companies.
Therefore, it is vital that we can put more water into it – we would like to see it reach levels of 70 per cent before the end of March.
“However, we still require more rain to help replenish our underground sources and continue to ask customers to use water wisely and look on our website for advice on how to do this.”
Every year, water from the Medway is used to top up Bewl reservoir. Previously, Southern Water could not take water from the river if the flow rate had dropped below the 275 million litres per day level, which is set in the current licence agreement. The Drought Permit allows Southern Water to continue taking water from the river until the flow rate of the river drops to 100 million litres per day, between the day the permit is granted and 31 March. Southern Water must apply for a permit extension if it wants to continue after this date.