Water shortages have struck local businesses hard, forcing some to temporarily close up shop as their flow has turned into a trickle.

Rock Island Coffee has been struggling to serve its customers for the past week.

The drought has caused its water pressure and that of several other Hamilton businesses fed by the Bermuda Waterworks system to plummet.

Owner of the Reid Street café, Lisabet Outerbridge said: "This started for us last week. The water pressure is way down and unfortunately for us, we rent an old building and the tank is gone, so we rely on Bermuda Waterworks directly.

"As soon as the pressure goes down, we start struggling. We struggled through last week, but on Wednesday we ran out of water at around 10 a.m. and we closed at 12 p.m.

"I came back at 9 p.m. and we still didn't have the pressure back."

While most tanks will maintain their pressure until the tank is dry, the Bermuda Waterworks System, which feeds much of Hamilton, is gravity-based.

With water levels lower than normal after one of the driest Junes on record, water pressure too had fallen dramatically.

Bermuda Weather Service meteorologist James Dodgson said Bermuda received a mere 0.79 inches of rainfall for the month of June the average being 5.04 inches.

The situation was worse in 2005 however. That June recorded 0.64 inches of rain.

Historically, Bermuda has averaged 26.74 inches of rainfall by this time of year. To date the Island has seen 17.98 inches approximately nine inches less than normal.

The trend started in April. Rainfall was 2.7 inches below normal for that month; May saw 1.8 inches less than the month's average.

According to Mr. Dodgson Bermuda could see some rain today and potential thunderstorms into the weekend.

"It could potentially be a fairly wet start to July," he said.

While the lack of water has hurt her business, Ms Outerbridge said Waterworks staff had been friendly and polite.

She attributed the problem to a lack of water conservation across the Island.

"I can't be upset because we've had it good for a long time, and I think that might be the problem.

"When I was growing up, I was taught that we had to conserve water, but nowadays with the reverse osmosis plants, I think we have lost a bit of that.

"We need to remember that we live on an Island and we have to be careful."

The popular coffee shop was just one of many businesses struck by the lack of water.

Philip Barnett, President of the Bermuda Island Group, said he only learnt about the problem after he received a phone call telling him toilets at Latin restaurant would not flush.

"There was no warning, nothing," he said. "Luckily, we were luckily able to get the toilets switched over [from Bermuda Waterworks] to our water tank before lunch.

"You can't open a bar or restaurant if the toilets don't work, and on a day like [yesterday] in the busy season, that can be devastating.

"If the water to Hamilton gets shut down, Hamilton shuts down. Obviously, there's a problem that needs to be sorted out."

Kym Herron Burns of the Athletic Club said the gym had also been having issues with water pressure for the last few weeks.

The issues culminated yesterday morning, when staff arrived to discover there was no water.

"We were out completely on Thursday morning, so it was a bit of a scramble. We open at 6 a.m., so you can't really reach anyone at that time.

"We've had on and off low pressure for a little while, but most of our customers understand the problems we've been having in Hamilton.

"Luckily, we were able to get a plumber in and switch to tank water, so everything's fine for now."

One hair salon said water pressure issues had caused problems for more than a week. A hairdresser said the business has been able to make do so far.

"We turn on the water to fill up the tanks, but the water presser has been very low. We've had to leave the water on overnight," said the man, who didn't want to identify the salon.

"At the end of the day, the tanks are full, but if this gets worse we could have real problems. If we don't have water, we can't exist. It's simple as that."

Even the Corporation of Hamilton itself ran into difficulties which caused it to close some public toilets and switch others to salt water.

Chief Operating Officer Edward Benevides said: "There has been reduced pressure to the water supplied to the city by both Government and Bermuda Waterworks Limited.

"This has resulted in the city's public toilet tanks taking longer to fill.

"Number Six Shed toilets have been closed to the public, and the toilets at Number One car park have been adjusted to receive salt water so the facility can stay open."

Bermuda Waterworks Limited was contacted for this story, but did not respond by press time.