A water company has been accused of wasting thousands of pounds on promotional gardens to teach supply saving tips instead of fixing leaks.

Southern Water's dry gardens, which do not need watering, were designed as an educational tool for a campaign about water efficiency.

But customers said the gardens, planted at seven sites in Sussex at a cost of £28,000 to the company, were a frivolous way of stating the obvious.

They said the money should have been spent on practical solutions to water supply, especially during the worst drought for decades.

Southern Water said the dry gardens, built at Worthing seafront, Tilgate Park and The Memorial Garden in Crawley, Horsham Park, Pulborough Brooks, Bewl Water and Pestalozzi Village, near Hastings, were all built in partnership with other organisations and had attracted hundreds of thousands of people.

Dry gardens only need extra water during the planting process and then rely entirely on direct rainfall without need for water cans or hosepipes.

The dry garden in Worthing cost £50,000 which included £20,000 from Southern Water and £30,000 from Worthing Borough Council. The water company spent another £8,000 on the rest of the gardens.

Critics said there were more urgent things to spend money on with customers in Sussex facing tough water restrictions to stave off drought.

Many said the company should concentrate on fixing leaks since it was revealed that in 2005, it allowed an estimated 100 million litres a day to escape from pipes across the county.

The criticism comes as the South East England Regional Assembly warned water must be managed more carefully and said an action plan must be drawn up immediately to make businesses and homes more water efficient.

Southern Water customer Simon Searle, of Graham Road, Worthing, said the dry garden projects were frivolous.

He was annoyed that his council had spent so much money on a project to state the obvious when he pays about £1,000 a year in council tax.

He said: "It's just £50,000 worth of garbage. Southern Water was happy to cut everyone's supply and bring in a hosepipe ban but it's still spending on something like this. It must be the only business that can reduce its service but keep the charges the same.

"As for the water shortage, there's water all over the country but Southern Water doesn't seem to be able to get hold of any."

Jim Jefferson, who lives near the Tilgate Park garden said: "It does seem like a waste of money to me."

Bob Smytherman, leader of Worthing Borough Council's Liberal Democrat Group, said a concerted effort to install water meters would have led to more water being saved than the garden. He said: "I live in a block of flats and had a water meter fitted, which led to my bill being cut in half.

"Very few of the other people in the flats have meters fitted but if they did their consumption would fall and they would save money."

However, council leader Keith Mercer said: "I support the project and would support anything else the council can do to educate people about coping with the drought."

Southern Water said it was duty bound to run educational campaigns about water efficiency. A spokesman said: "Hundreds of thousands of people visit the water-efficient gardens each year and will continue to do so for many years to come ensuring an extremely cost effective way of promoting and educating people about water efficiency.'

Crawley Borough Council said the contributions it made had already been earmarked for use on gardens anyway.