Drought-stricken US states are fining the water wasters

Delaware yesterday ordered mandatory curbs on water use around the state capital, becoming the second state in as many days to do so in response to one of the worst droughts in US history.

Householders and businesses in Wilmington and its suburbs caught watering their lawns, filling their swimming pools and fountains, washing their cars at home or hosing down their footpaths and driveways face fines of between $50 and $500.

Industrial companies in the area must cut their water use by 20 per cent and restaurants can only serve water if it is ordered by patrons, state officials said.

On Wednesday, Maryland officials ordered similar water usage restrictions on companies and householders throughout the state, saying violators faced fines of $1,000 per violation.

"This is a very serious situation. We're taking steps to avoid a mess," said Susan Woods, spokeswoman at the Maryland Department of Environment.

The aim of the emergency measures in Delaware and Maryland is to ration what remains in reservoirs across the mid-Atlantic region.

"This drought at the present time is about the third worst we've had after the '29 and the '66 droughts," said Janice Ward, of the US Geological Survey.

The 1929 drought caused the infamous Dust Bowl across most of the central United States, which worsened the economic damage of the Great Depression of the 1930s and set off a wave of migration to California.

"About 75 per cent of the streams are at or about record lows in the mid-Atlantic area . . . If we continue not to get very much rainfall it could conceivably become the largest drought of the century," Janice Ward said.

So far, officials in Washington, DC, and Virginia have not declared mandatory rationing because their reservoirs contain adequate supplies of water.

The last time the mid-Atlantic region suffered a serious drought was in the late 1970s; the worst US drought in recent memory parched 35 states in the mid-west, Northern Plains and Rocky Mountain states between 1984 and '88.

Though most of the television images are of withered corn stalks and dry riverbeds in mid-Atlantic states, US officials are concerned about this year's nationwide shortfall.

"This is a very serious problem, in many regions of the US," said Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman, who wants Congress to approve emergency financial assistance for drought-stricken farmers.

Glickman yesterday ordered workers to stop watering the lawns of the Agriculture Department's headquarters and instructed the agency to study ways to increase conservation.

"Drought is an insidious, slow-moving cancer. We must do a better job of dealing with both prevention as well as providing emergency benefits," he said.

Some 200 people have died in the nationwide heatwave, with the toll being highest in the mid-west states of Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Missouri, Wisconsin, Kansas and Nebraska. A total of 97 people have been killed in Chicago alone.