Mr Mead said the government and OFWAT needed to help the water companies fund the changes.
The government, therefore, does not necessarily cap what water companies can charge their customers.
Water companies, farmers and wildlife groups were invited to discuss the situation at the summit.
BBC: South East latest part of England officially in drought
Scottish water companies have been told they cannot raise their bills for a year from April 2010.
The FDA does require bottled water companies to test for contaminants and other problems, says Joshua Sharfstein, M.
Summy represents 90% or so of the 140 municipalities, public utilities and water companies that have filed suit.
Last April, seven water companies in southern and eastern England introduced hosepipe bans affecting about 20 million customers.
We are all water managers, not just the water companies or government regulators.
Water companies there are all confident there will be no need to introduce a hosepipe ban for customers this year.
Water companies are being told by the government to take on responsibility for the sewers that run underneath homeowners' properties.
According to engineer Terry Powell, water companies regularly use practices which mean that the customer does not get the best deal.
The water companies insist they have a good record of releasing environmental data without having to be bound by the regulations.
But water companies needed to invest in the sewer network to ensure untreated waste water was only released in urgent cases.
The water companies retort that they have paid little corporation tax because the government gave them huge allowances to encourage investment.
Areas in southern and South-East England were experiencing very low groundwater levels, prompting a number of water companies to impose hosepipe bans.
BBC: Met Office: 2012 was UK's second wettest year on record
Without more open accounting by the state-run water companies, some media commentators have argued, the extra money might simply go to waste.
Water companies introduce hosepipe bans, pointing to dry spell five years ago.
Mr Hopkins has also suggested the introduction of an arrangement for charging electric, gas and water companies to work on stretches of road.
He said that water companies "across the board" often set themselves the most expensive budgets for new schemes, much higher than they need.
Ms Spelman said she wanted water companies to look at the possibility of connecting pipe networks so they could transfer water from wetter areas.
BBC: South East latest part of England officially in drought
This time last year much of England was suffering a severe drought with seven water companies in the south east enforcing hosepipe bans and restrictions.
Or, of course, the taxpayer can pay directly, simply shovel the money from the Treasury out to the water companies to pay these extra costs.
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Ministers say they will also do more encourage water companies to find new sources of supply to try to reduce the impact of future droughts.
We airlift bottled water to disasters, which permits bottled water companies to claim great humanitarian benefits, but is an extraordinarily expensive and unsustainable response.
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Electricity and water companies have been ordered to cut off supplies.
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The government says water companies, businesses, farmers and the public in the areas that have seen the driest conditions need to plan now for next summer.
He says that while it is unlikely that residents will be using the river directly for drinking water, it may pose a problem for water companies.
This should not cause problems for public water companies, which already have monitoring and treatment processes to deal with any organisms or chemicals in their supplies.
Mr Powell works for EC Harris, one of the main firms of quantity surveyors who advise water companies on costs and estimates for price fixing negotiations.
The angling campaign group Fish Legal is bringing an appeal in a case involving three private water companies, Southern Water, Yorkshire Water and United Utilities.
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