Aquarion Water Company says Monday's rain did little to ease drought conditions that prompted a ban on lawn sprinklers in four local communities.

Officials have upgraded the drought level to severe and banned homeowners in Greenwich, New Canaan, Darien and Stamford from watering their lawns. Instead people are asked to use a handheld hose to water their gardens and plants.

"Right now, our reservoir levels are 34 percent full. That's not good, usually this time of year we'd be much higher than that," says Greenwich conservation director Denise Savageau.

For the last few weeks, the water company says it's been asking people to voluntarily conserve water but it is now mandatory.

Greenwich officials says the town uses 12 to 15 million gallons of water a day in the winter. But in a hot and dry summer, that number jumps to 32 million gallons a day.

"We know that if they just stop watering their lawns, we'll be sure we have water in the fire ponds, that we have water, that the pressure doesn't go down when we fight fires and also that there is adequate public drinking water supply," says Aquarion official Bruce Silverstone.

Greenwich officials say the town board will vote on Thursday to make watering your lawn a fineable offense during the ban, and police will be able to hand out $90 tickets to violators.