As El Paso bakes under the summer sun and the eagerly awaited monsoon season remains missing in action, water use has started to creep upward.

It's nowhere near a crisis situation, but El Pasoans should continue to practice conservation habits honed by years of decreasing potable water supplies and strengthening water restrictions.

After restrictions were ended in May, water usage started to rise slowly compared with the same period in 2002 -- 9.3 percent in June, 9.8 percent in July and 19.6 percent for the first 10 days of August.

That's not good, but neither is it totally unexpected, said Karol Parker, spokeswoman for the El Paso Water Utilities.

"We thin! k the dryness and heat have caused the increased water use," she said. "We did not get the monsoon we were expecting, and because of increased temperatures and lack of rain, water use is up."

Parker said there's sufficient water to get through the rest of the summer, and then water use tends to decrease as temperatures moderate through fall and winter.

However, that's no excuse to waste water. As Parker said, conservation has become a way of life in El Paso. And it must remain so, a habit that helps preserve and extend our most precious natural resource.