water companies say hosepipe bans are put in place to help protect river habitats. helen briggs reports. you can normally swim in this part of the river anton, but now water levels are so low, you can wade across. and you can tell from the cool, clear water, we re in a chalk river a rare and beautiful place that s home to wildlife such as trout, otters and kingfishers. how precious is this habitat, and how do we better protect this river and the wildlife in it? this habitat is really precious, and that s because it has been filtered through this chalk, and then comes out very cool and clear. we see these beautiful river ecosystems. we ve seen some trout today. i ve also seen grayling here. there are salmon in some of our chalk streams, as well.