00:00So Chloe why are we talking about the drought of today especially?
00:06Hi Nayla, yeah I'm in Great Lions Heritage Park in Gillingham and you can see just behind me
00:10how brown and miserable the grass looks and that's because of a severe lack of rain although we're
00:16not lacking any wind today as you might hear. This week's temperatures marked the fifth heat wave
00:21this year. Overnight the warning for this week went from yellow to amber that's going to be
00:26all the way until Friday evening but why are we talking about drought specifically? Well a few
00:31minutes before this show went out we found out that the National Drought Group which is made up
00:36of the Met Office, government officials, water companies, they've decided to add more areas into
00:42what are considered the official drought areas. So before in back in July it was around half the
00:47country was in official drought that didn't include Kent. Now Kent has apparently been added to this
00:53list that brings the country to 71.3 percent in drought. The county actually only received one
00:59percent of its long-term average rate. It means that some river catchments have exceptionally low flows
01:08with parts of the river bowl having dried up almost completely. It's clear to see though that it's not
01:14just the rivers that are struggling there's grass now they're struggling here. Here in Medway there isn't
01:18actually a hose pipe ban yet we're still seeing how much the grass is impacted. I was in a village
01:23in Maystone talking to a parish councillor telling us she blamed southeast water for some of the
01:28issues they've been having with their grey and brown scenery. It looks like that and you know this
01:34area is very green there's kind of farmland all around you can see this field's kind of felt the
01:39effects of it a little bit. Very much so. How's the parish council feeling about that trying to keep the
01:43green space is kind of alive in this situation? We just can't. We just can't because obviously with
01:49the hose pipe ban I think everybody knew that there was that was going to happen especially with this
01:55prolonged spell of hot weather but again it goes back to the water companies for not having the
02:02foresight to be able to plan for all of this. Now Chloe we know it's hot and we know it's
02:07dry but
02:08what does a label of in drought actually mean for the county? So the label of drought isn't just
02:15something we can show off and be like yep it's definitely dry here it's something that water
02:19companies can actually use to apply for more support. So all water companies have a statutory
02:24drought plan to deal with droughts for example temporary use bans, for example hose pipe bans
02:30we're seeing in southeast water supplied areas. Being officially declared in drought though adds additional
02:36power to water companies they can ask for permits and orders to allow more flexibility to managing
02:40water resources and there's an exceptional shortage of rain like we're seeing at the moment.
02:46Drought permits don't really qualify water companies so they basically need to take
02:49extra water for waterways such as rivers. Drought orders go a step further that means that they can
02:55have a bit more control of what other water companies do, kind of go up the pecking order when it
02:58comes to
02:59priority. Now it's unclear whether southeast water or indeed southern water or thames water for
03:05medway in darkford will apply for such drought permits or orders but we do know for sure the drought
03:10will be lasting for a little bit longer.
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