Southern Water's existing drought permit expires at the end of September, but it wants to continue abstracting water from the Western Rother river.

The company said it had already made an application to the Environment Agency.

The firm was granted drought orders for Kent and Sussex by the government this year, which allow bans on non-essential water use, but did not implement them.

A Southern Water spokeswoman said: "This application is simply seeking permission to give us the option to continue what we have been doing for the past six months."

She said Southern Water's normal licence allowed it to take water from the river until the flow rate dropped to 63.6 million litres per day.

Groundwater 'still low'

A drought permit in 2005 changed the limit to 53.6 million litres per day, and was extended in this year.

The company is now making a new application because the law prohibits two extensions, she said.

At the end of August, a month that saw the second wettest week of 2006 in England and Wales, water resources in the South East were still low.

The Environment Agency said the month of wet weather followed a year of below-average rainfall, and did not signal the end of the drought.

The agency also said there was little chance of improvement to groundwater levels until this autumn and winter, because summer rainfall would either evaporate or be taken up by plants.

Nearly 13 million people are still affected by hosepipe bans in the South East, which has been in the grip of a drought since November 2004.