DEVASTATING droughts could be the future for Hampshire if predictions by environment experts about rainfall and over-development come true.

The worrying scenario has been touted by bosses from the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust and comes after the Met Office warned rainfall across the south-east could fall by 50 per cent over the next forty years.

Serious problems over water supply could also surface as early as next summer, says the trust, if the county experiences a third successive dry winter.

Now the body is calling on planning chiefs to think carefully about the tens of thousands of new homes proposed for the county and is urging everyone living in the area to continue to save as much water as possible.

In a new report, the trust says over-development and less rainfall because of climate change pose severe problems for water supplies across the south.

The 163,400 new homes planned for Hampshire under the South-East Plan will use an additional 24 million litres of water a day, without taking into account the 490 million litres neeededby businesses and services that support them.

This, says the report, would lead to wildlife dying out across the region as water supplies fail to replenish each year due to over-extraction to meet growing population levels and drier winters.

"No habitat will remain unaffected by a shortage of water," it adds.

"As the ground dries out and soil compacts down, any rain that does fall will be unable to seep into the ground and settle in the chalk aquifer.

"It will flow over the surface downhill, taking small soil particles with it, causing soil erosion, crop failures and a change in eco-systems.

"This future is not far away.

"As more houses are built and less rain falls, this story is far less about annual hosepipe bans and drought warnings, and more about the gradual loss of the wildlife and heritage that makes the county so special."