Area cities served by Lincoln Pipestone Rural Water may be setting restrictions on non-essential water use this week.

LPRW is reaching out to cities and some rural customers to reduce water use and ease demand on the system, said general manager Jason Overby.

“With the hot, dry weather, we’re in a high demand period,” Overby said Wednesday. LPRW was facing demand from both cities and agricultural customers. Over the past week, dry weather conditions and high temperatures meant people were using water for things like watering lawns or washing cars at the same time that farmers also needed water to help with tasks like agricultural spraying, he said.

Overby said LPRW was asking member cities to reduce water usage during the high demand period. However, individual cities have the ability to set their own water use restrictions, he said.

LPRW serves a total of around 36 cities in southwest Minnesota. The water system’s service area includes Lac qui Parle, Lincoln, Lyon, Murray, Nobles, Pipestone, Redwood, Rock, Yellow Medicine and Jackson counties.

On Wednesday, some area cities were issuing water use restrictions. The city of Lynd announced it was in a water ban, and that using water for laws or gardens, washing cars or filling pools would not be allowed.

The city of Vesta issued water use restrictions at noon Wednesday. The Vesta announcement said using the public water supply to water lawns would be restricted to an odd/even watering cycle, and would be prohibited from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily.