Thames Water seeks drought order

LONDON, June 10 (Reuters) Millions of people in London face restrictions on their water use after Thames Water said it will apply to the government for special powers to cope with a drought in southern England.

If granted, the drought order would ban the washing of cars with a hosepipe, filling private swimming pools and watering parks and sports grounds.

Thames Water, owned by German utility RWE, said groundwater levels remained low, despite the wettest May in 27 years.

''We simply don't know how much rain we will get in the rest of the summer,'' the company's Chief Executive Officer Jeremy Pelczer said in a statement yesterday. ''If the weather is unusually hot and dry we will need to restrict water use more than we are at present.'' The company's five million customers in London would be covered, while three million more in the Thames Valley will be exempt, he added.

Last July, Thames Water was criticised by regulator Ofwat for losing 915 million litres of water a day through leaks.

The company says that since November 2004 there has been below-average rainfall in the southeast in every month except one and that last year was the third-driest on record.

The government's Environment Agency says southeast England is facing the most severe drought in the last 100 years.

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