Authorities in Wellington, New Zealand, have issued an outright ban on outdoor water use as a worsening drought has siphoned the available supply to less than half of normal level and prompted the government to declare the worst water shortage in 30 years.

New Zealand's capital, home to more than 200,000 people, has just 19 days' supply of water left in its reservoirs, the APNZ news service reported.

"The water supply situation is now approaching extreme," the Greater Wellington Regional Council said in a statement on its website, adding that it is also asking residents to cut indoor water use "to help us avoid a crisis."

Wellington hasn't seen a significant rain since Feb. 4, and while a storm is forecast for this weekend, it will have no real impact on the water supply, authorities said. All of the North Island, which holds most of the country's population, has been declared a drought zone. Auckland on Thursday issued an outdoor fire ban.

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The Wellington City Council said urgent action had to be taken to ensure that homes and businesses had sufficient water.

"Water levels in our local rivers -- the source of our water supply -- are extremely low and dropping," the council said in a statement. "A significant reduction in demand for water will extend the number of days that back-up storage will last, so it’s important to save water now."

The drought has had a major impact on farmers, who estimate that it has so far cost them $820 million in lost export earnings, The Associated Press reported, adding that the damage is rising daily as they reduce their herds, which in turn reduces milk production.

"We are beginning to see a decline in milk production -- in fact, a sharp decline in some areas -- and farmers are considering slaughtering capital stock, which will result in lower future production and reduced revenue," New Zealand Finance Minister Bill English said Tuesday during a Parliament meeting.

"It's very hard to remember when the last rainfall was," dairy farmer John Rose told the AP, adding that he had sent more than 100 of his cows to slaughter in recent weeks as the drought turned pastures brown and dry. He said the move was necessary to make sure his remaining 550 cows had enough to eat -- a challenge even as he mixes in palm kernels with their feed to try to stretch it.

Like most farmers, he's concerned about the future, as are some government officials.

"We know the drought will peg back growth in the economy, but it is not yet clear by how much," English told Parliament.

Even if the current drought eases soon, the long-term picture isn't rosy, according to climate scientists.

The government's National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research predicts that farmers in the southern part of the North Island, the area around Wellington, will spend up to 10 percent more time per year in drought by the middle of the century.

More NBC News coverage of New Zealand

 

WARSAW -- A huge cargo of elaborate marble stonework that sank to the bottom of Poland's Vistula River four centuries ago has re-appeared after a drought and record-low water levels revealed the masonry lying in the mud on the river bed.

Archaeologists believe the stonework was part of a trove that 17th-century Swedish invaders looted from Poland's rulers and loaded onto barges to transport home, only for the booty to go to the bottom when the vessels sank.

Researchers knew about the artifacts, on the river bed where the Vistula passes through the Polish capital, but before the drought retrieving them was a painstaking task because they were under several feet of water.

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Now though, the masonry -- large blocks of carved marble used in the columns, fountains, and staircases of Polish palaces -- is lying exposed apart from a coating of foul-smelling yellow mud.

"The drought helped us a lot because what had been lying underneath is now at the surface," said Hubert Kowalski, deputy director of the University of Warsaw Museum, which is leading the effort to retrieve the marble stonework.

Speaking at a police building where some of the stonework is being temporarily stored, he said historians' knowledge about what happened four centuries ago had previously been sketchy.

"Now we have evidence, the best material evidence of the Swedish invasion so far." 

Low rainfall over the past few months has brought the Vistula, Poland's longest river, to its lowest level since regular records began 200 years ago.

Navigation along the river has already been affected and officials say if water levels do not recover soon, power stations in Warsaw that use river water for cooling may be forced to close down.

Jewish artifacts from WWII also found
The receding water has also revealed relics from Warsaw's bloody history during World War II. During that period the city was occupied by Nazi Germany, the Jewish population was wiped out, the city rose up against the occupation, and then the Soviet Red Army arrived and imposed its own rule.

Unexploded World War II ordnance was found on the river bed in one part of the city last  weekend. Kowalski said on the stretch of river bed he had been studying, a few pieces of Jewish matzevah, or gravestones, had been discovered.

He said they would be handed over to the city's Jewish Historical Institute. Finds of Jewish artifacts are quite common in Warsaw, the legacy of successive Nazi and Soviet schemes to demolish traces of the city's Jewish community.

Historians believed that the Swedes who invaded Poland in the 17th century planned to move the looted cargo up the Vistula to Gdansk, where the river joins the Baltic Sea, and from there transport it home. There is still no firm explanation of why the boats sank on the way.

Kowalski said he and his team had so far located up to 10 tons of stonework, but this was only the beginning. "The boats had a capacity of 50-60 tons (each), so we think that we should find much more," he said.

Once it has been removed from the river bed and cataloged, the plan is to take the masonry to Warsaw's Royal Castle, one of the sites from which, historians believe, it was looted by the Swedish invaders.

For now though, the low water levels that revealed the artifacts are hampering efforts to retrieve them. Regular lifting equipment would sink into the mud, but the river is too low for the researchers to bring in floating cranes.

"We need to wait until it gets higher," Kowalski said.

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London has an undeserved reputation as a rainy city, with “things to do” when the U.K. capital is wet a popular topic of conversation among tourists.

But this year could see that image shattered in dramatic fashion, with much of southeast England gripped by a serious drought currently affecting about 20 million people.

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Restrictions on the use of water were imposed Thursday from the southeast coast to the River Humber in the north and almost as far west as Wales.

By the time the Olympics comes to London in July, further controls could be introduced that will prevent aircraft, London’s famous double-decker buses and other vehicles from being washed. Other restrictions are also likely.

Brits revel in gloom ahead of London Olympics

Those arriving for the greatest show on Earth, may find a parched, somewhat grubby city. The event itself, however, will be exempt, so rest assured there will be water in the diving pool, the rowers will not in find themselves marooned and the smiles of the synchronized swimmers will remain fixed.

Driest 2-year period since 1884
In an attempt to prevent the situation getting worse, seven English water companies imposed a so-called "hosepipe ban" Thursday – mainly designed to reduce the amount of water used in people's yards -- and urged people to cut back on water use by, for example, reducing time spent in the shower to just four minutes.

Ignoring the ban could result in a fine of more than $1,500.

“We have now received below-average rainfall across our region for 20 of the past 25 months, making it the driest two-year period since records began in 1884,” Martin Baggs, chief executive of Thames Water, said in a statement.

“Imposing restrictions on the use of [hoses], although regrettable, is the most sensible and responsible next step in encouraging everyone to use less water so we can maintain supplies for as long as it stays dry, and reduce the risk of more serious restrictions later in the year,” he added.

Hilary Murgatroyd, a spokeswoman for Thames Water, which supplies London and surrounding areas, said if the hosepipe ban did not produce the required effect, companies could decide to implement a more Draconian measure: the “drought order.”

This would mean that cleaning of aircraft and public transport vehicles would be prohibited, apart from “washing require for health and safety reasons,” she told msnbc.com.

“It [a drought order] is something that we’re considering, but it will be dependent on the reduction we see over the next couple of weeks and what the weather does, what rainfall we get,” Murgatroyd added.

Despite its wet reputation, London gets about 23 or 24 inches of rain a year; New York City regularly gets twice that amount.

'Nothing too torrential'
Charlie Powell, a meteorologist at the U.K.’s Met Office, told msnbc.com there was no sign of an imminent downpour over the drought-affected areas.

He said that little rain was expected to fall over the next few days although about 0.4 inches was expected Monday “in a few places.”

“Nothing too torrential. Anything is better than nothing at this stage, but no significant, prolonged rainfall,” Powell said.

'Meterological March Madness' mostly random

He said that March had been particularly dry with much of the U.K. as a whole receiving less than half the average rainfall for that month.

This came after a winter that saw eastern Scotland and south and eastern England receive about 75 percent of average rainfall, while northern Ireland and the north and west of Scotland was particularly wet with 120 percent.

Floods in Fiji finally recede after leaving 5 dead

One regularly mooted solution to drought in the south is pipe water from Scotland, which usually has plenty to spare.

But Murgatroyd said this was not a “practical” option: water is heavy and therefore expensive to move and also has a different chemical makeup in different places due to the type of rock and treatments used to make it drinkable that could cause problems in the pipes, such as corrosion.

Warmest March on record for dozens of cities

Last month, saw a desalination plant open in East London, which will take sea water from the Thames Estuary and turn it into enough water for a million people.

But the question remains, will British people pull together, let their prized hydrangeas wilt in the sun and put up with being slightly less well washed?

One indicator could be how willing people are to report neighbors who break the hose ban to authorities.

According a non-scientific poll in The Guardian newspaper at 10:50 a.m. ET, more than 70 percent would not. 

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