Metro weekly water update 12 April 2019

Perth metro weekly water update – 12 April 2019

 

	Target	Actual
April water use to date	10 billion litres	10 billion litres
Dam storage levels	N/A	46 per cent
Cumulative streamflow into dams	185 billion litres (Post 1975 May to March average)	159 billion litres
April rainfall to date	37.2 mm (April mean rainfall 1994-2017)   44.2 mm (April average rainfall 1876-2016)	0 mm

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Note: 1 billion litres = approx. 400 Olympic swimming pools.  Please note these figures are rounded (except for rainfall) to the nearest whole number.

 

Water use

 

Average water use over the last week was 872,000,000 litres (872 million litres) per day, which was above the forecast of 844,000,000 litres (844 million litres).

 

Daily water use for the last five days
Date	Actual water use – litres	Forecast – litres
Friday, 12 April 2019	838,000,000	830,000,000
Thursday, 11 April 2019	873,000,000	830,000,000
Wednesday, 10 April 2019	919,000,000	830,000,000
Tuesday, 9 April 2019	879,000,000	830,000,000
Monday, 8 April 2019	928,000,000	860,000,000

Note: water use above is calculated up to 8am each day for the previous 24 hour period

 

Since 1 July 2018, we have used 232 billion litres of water - this is about four billion litres above what we had forecast. 

 

Dam level (total for 15 dams)

 

The dam storage level has gone down slightly in the past week and is sitting at 46.2 per cent* of full capacity.

 

*Please note some dams are filled from different sources - dam levels include the transfer of groundwater and desalinated seawater from treatment plants as well as streamflow (that comes from rainfall).  Dam levels are no longer an accurate indicator of the health of Perth's overall water supply situation.

 

Streamflow (total for 15 dams)

 

From 1 May 2018 to 28 March 2019 the dams had received 159.1 billion litres of streamflow.  The post-1975 average for the May to April period is 187.2 billion litres.

 

Sprinkler roster compliance

 

The two-day-a-week sprinkler roster now applies across Perth, so make sure your sprinklers are programmed for your rostered water days and only to come on once, either before 9am or after 6pm.

 

Our team of inspectors issued 122 warnings and 88 fines this week.  Since 1 January 2019, we have taken a total of 2911 actions (warnings + fines) compared with 2936 actions for the same period in 2018.

 

Annual rainfall

 

Perth has still only received 13 mm of rainfall since 1 January 2019.  Average (1994-2017) rainfall for this period is 87.9 mm. There has been no rainfall recorded at all in Perth for the month of April.

 

General water news

 

If you’re heading off to the derby this weekend you may see our ‘Nature Knows Best’ campaign pop up on the stadium’s digital scoreboard. This stage of our campaign has reached over 2 million people with many of you taking water saving action as a result.

 

This includes using our free online tool that allows you to compare your water use to others in your neighbourhood, and monitor your water use over time.