The first thing is to know what a hosepipe restriction actually means.
Although the water companies don't like to make this clear, you can
still legitimately use a hosepipe during a "ban". What you can't do is
water plants directly with it or wash the car. But for the disabled or
infirm who can't carry heavy watering cans, it might be useful to know
that they can place empty containers around the garden, strategically
close to plants which need water, and fill those containers with a hose
- then using a watering can to carry the precious stuff the short
distance to their plants.

Unusually for the water companies, there's a good/factual Q&A on the
Three Valleys Water website at
http://www.3valleys.co.uk/home/ah_beatthedrought.shtml which explains
what you can still use a hose for -- including, ludicrously, to supply
a pressure washer.

The law is an ass and I suppose I'm in the minority in that I am
furious that gardeners and the £5bn gardening industry are used as
scapegoats when their consumption of water is so small. The water
compnaies don't have any powers to impose restrictions on the people
who use 99% of our abstracted water. They can only prohibit the 1% that
goes to an outside tap. That's because an outside tap doesn't come
under their statutory domestic supply regulations. So, take as many
power showers as you like, leave the bathroom tap running all night,
flush the loo 5 times a night and generally waste as much water as you
like indoors because it will take an (unlikely) emergency drought order
and standpipes to curb you.

Meanwhile the gardener carries the full burden of restrictions despite
the fact that 96% of all household water use goes unchecked and so does
all the industrial, commercial and agricultural use. And so does much
of the water industry leakage which alone would supply over one-third
of all the nation's domestic needs.

But what really makes my blood boil is that all the evidence indicates
that hosepipe restrictions don't actually save water. Research by the
Environment Agency, the Water Research Centre, Southern Water and
others hasn't been able to prove that hosepipe bans save water. Some of
the research shows that water consumption actually goes up during a
hosepipe ban. Other research shows that industrial users reduced their
consumption far more than domestic users despite the fact that the
industrial users weren't subject to any restrictions.

Anyway, the real reason for the water shortage in the south east isn't
the low rainfall because it has been just as low in other areas but the
water companies inability and unwillingness to invest in water storage
resources - combined with the Government's suicidal house-building
programme in the region.

And do check whether your water supplier really has imposed a
restriction. Research last year by the Environment Agency proved that
14% of customers in a region where water was plentiful and unrestricted
wrongly assumed that they were subject to a hosepipe ban.

For the record, here (at the time of writing) are all the hosepipe bans
which will be in force by April 3:

Cholderton & District Water
Folkestone & Dover Water
Mid Kent Water
South East Water
Sutton & East Surrey Water
Thames Water
Three Valleys Water
Southern Water has imposed part-area restrictions in its Sussex North,
Sussex Coast, Sussex Hasting, Kent Thanet, Kent Medway and Isle of
Wight water supply areas (739,000) but not in its Hampshire supply
area.

That's a total of 6.3m homes, all in the south east. Other areas are
not threatened by drought and won't need to impose hosepipe bans.

Next week I will come under Thames Water's hosepipe ban. I have sown
new areas of lawn and if it doesn't rain, I will connect up my hosepipe
to my tripod garden shower, perfectly legally, and tell the family to
shower outdoors - moving the tripod around as required.

It's all spin and con and we just take it like sheep.