DAPHNE — Daphne Utilities customers are being asked to voluntarily conserve water, a measure that is needed due to the area’s continuing drought.

Rob McElroy, Daphne Utilities general manager, said that today will mark the beginning of a week-long voluntary emergency water conservation plan.

“We’re going to pull the trigger on water restrictions — the phase one of our voluntary conservation on Wednesday,” McElroy said Tuesday.

As a result, water customers are being asked to “voluntarily limit water use to only what is necessary for business, public safety and health,” he said.

Under this measure, fund-raiser car washes are prohibited, he said.

It also calls for a “voluntary landscape irrigation ban for a minimum one-week period,” McElroy said.

“We’re not asking anyone to not water something, say a bush, that they have just planted. We’re not asking them to just let it die,” he said.

“But don’t do anything on established turf or plants; they will make it a week,” McElroy said.

Just turning off and not using sprinklers in yards will help the situation greatly, he said.

Even after the week-long conservation period expires, McElroy is hoping that area citizens will continue to “water wisely.”

A similar measure was enacted last year, but that didn’t happen until June, McElroy said.

“So we’re having to do this a few weeks earlier this year than last. And we’re also using 21 percent more water at this time than we did last year on this date,” he said.

“A lot of water is being used and we’re struggling to keep the water distributed throughout the system,” McElroy said.

The utility does have three other (more restrictive) phases of its water conservation plan — including a mandatory alert, a mandatory warning and a mandatory compliance, McElroy said.

“Fortunately we’ve not had to use those,” he said.