BRITAIN:Thousands of homes in Gloucestershire in England should have water restored today after emergency measures implemented by Severn Trent Water following flood damage to power sub-stations and sewage systems.
However the majority of the 130,000 homes left without running tap water earlier in the week will still have to wait up to two weeks before supplies are restored.
Severn Trent planned to feed 20 million litres a day of water into Tewkesbury, one of the worst affected towns, restoring mains water to 10,000 homes.
Authorities have been criticised for their slow response to the floods, the worst in central and western England in 60 years.
Large swathes of Britain have been left under water and at least eight people have died during a month of torrential rain.
The latest two deaths occurred when a father and son were found dead in a cellar of a rugby club in Tewkesbury. They are believed to have become overcome by fumes as they used a petrol-powered pump to clear the basement of water.
In the past two months, Britain has experienced the heaviest rainfall since records began in 1766, leading rivers to burst their banks and causing widespread severe flooding, with up to 10,000 people forced from their homes.
The Environment Agency said country has not been so severely flooded since 1947, .
Health experts have warned people, especially children, to avoid drinking flood water, saying it might contain raw sewage hosting dangerous viruses and bacteria such as E. coli and salmonella.
Insurers have said the combined cost of the June and July floods could top £3 billion. There is also expected to be a heavy impact on agriculture, with farmers warning that any more rain could affect harvests.
Rainfall in Britain has been more than double the seasonal average, with the early summer months of May to July witnessing 382.4mm of rainwater, topping the previous record of 349.1mm in 1789, officials said.
Deluges in 32 counties, covering the thousands of square kilometres stretching from Devon to Yorkshire, broke records dating back to 1914 by more than 25mm, the meteorologists added.
Forecasters predict the weather to remain unsettled until early August, saying a further 20mm of rain are possible across parts of the southwest.
Recent data by Met Office scientists showed that in the past three months, Gloucestershire and neighbouring areas experienced more than 320 per cent more rainfall than the average for the previous three decades.
Peter Stott, a senior climate scientist at the Met Office, said downpours of such magnitude are set to become more frequent as climate change drives up the temperature of the atmosphere.
"These one-in-200-year events are very likely to become more common. When it rains, it can rain much harder, because the atmosphere can hold more water in a warmer world," he said.
Dr Stott is the co-author of a paper published today in the journal Nature, which shows for the first time that climate change driven by human activity is altering rainfall patterns around the world.
Climate change models predict that Britain will experience longer, drier summers and wetter, warmer winters, making the summertime rains more of an aberration of the weather than a direct result of climate change.
By the end of the century, scientists predict Britain will become warmer by between two and six degrees, with the climate in the south of the country becoming more like continental Europe.
Dr Stott said the increased risk of flooding as climate change took hold would demand huge investment in new flood defences. Plans to bolster the Thames barrier, which guards the City and property along the estuary against storm surges, may reach £25 billion if the Environment Agency decides it needs to build a second barrier.
Less costly options are also under consideration, including an upgrade of the existing barrier.