英伦广角 2011-04-26 热浪带来干旱恐惧（在线收听）

With most of us enjoying the wall to wall sunshine this bank holiday, the last thing we’ve been praying for is rain. For Ray Manning, the showers can’t come quickly enough. His family has been growing fruit in Cambridgeshire the last 4o years. They’ve not had rain for 7 weeks now, with no lakes or rivers to water his trees. He is in danger of losing his crops.

“We need really really need some rain. We’ve got full crops due to the wonderful sunny weather, high pollination. The bees have worked well. But now, we’re suffering from the drought. ”

The Environment Agency says that nationally we have 13% less rain in the last three months when compared to the yearly average. While forward drought planning means no hose pipe bans for now. It has left river levels low in the Southwest, central and Eastern England. And that means the farmers could be forced to reduce the amount of water they take out to irrigate their crops.

Here in the Thames, river levels have been falling over the last few weeks. It also here in Cambridgeshire, we saw the lowest rainfall in March since 1929 with only 3.5 milliliters. Well, there’s still a plenty of water for us to enjoy the warm weather. There are worries about what means to farmers and also the wildlife living underneath the water.

Most reservoirs are at normal levels, but water companies aren’t ruling out the possibilities for restrictions if the dry weather continues. And that means more of us must use our water wisely.

“We use water bucket to conserve water wherever the water; there is in the garden. And we don’t use hose pipe in the garden. So that say, helps towards the problem.”

“In this country, it doesn’t seem stellar  is too long so we think before a long, we gonna have a lot of rain.”

“The garden, I’ve just given a little drop of water, so I left the other day, but not the hose pipe, because I don’t really want to use too much, just enough to keep them going.”

Over the coming weeks, there is no doubt that many eyes will be on the skies. The shortage of rain may have meant a bumper eastern break. But a few showers are needed if we don’t want to pay for it this summer.

Rihanna Mills ,Sky News.