Table showing target and actual water use, dam levels, streamflow and rainfall
  Target Actual
April water use to date 14 billion litres 16 billion litres
Dam storage levels NA 42%
Weekly streamflow into dams NA 44 billion litres
April rainfall to date 37.2mm (Feb average rainfall 1994-2017) 1.6mm
Note: 1 billion litres = approximately 400 Olympic swimming pools. Please note the figures in this table are rounded (except for rainfall) to the nearest whole number.
 

Water use

Average water use over the past week was 922 million litres per day, which was above the forecast of 834 million litres.

Daily water use for the last 5 days

Table showing daily water use for the last 5 days
Date Actual water use (million litres) Forecast water use (million litres)
17/04/2020 900 822
16/04/2020 892 822
15/04/2020 881 822
14/03/2020 893 822
13/03/2020 880 849
Note, water use is calculated up to 8am each day for the previous 24 hour period.

Since 1 July 2019, we have used 246.3 billion litres of water – which is around 6.1 billion litres over the forecast for this period

Dam level (total for 15 dams)

The dam storage levels have dropped slightly this week and are sitting at a combined 42.4 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). As we use many different sources of water, dams are no longer an accurate indicator of the health of Perth's overall water supply situation.

Streamflow (total for 15 dams)

From 1 May 2019 the dams have received 44.1 billion litres of streamflow. The post-1975 average for the May to April period (called the streamflow year) is 183.9 billion litres.

Sprinkler roster compliance

The two-day a week sprinkler roster now applies. Since 1 January 2020, we have taken a total of 2148 actions (warnings + fines) compared with 3158 actions for the same period in 2019.

Annual rainfall

Perth has received 70.40 mm of rainfall since 1 January 2019. The average (1994-2017) rainfall for the April period is 87.9 mm.

General water news

A friendly reminder that picnic and recreational areas at Water Corporation managed dams across Western Australia are closed in line with advice to cease non-essential travel.

This includes the below Perth metropolitan dams:

  • Mundaring Weir
  • Victoria Dam
  • Canning Dam
  • Churchman Brook Dam
  • Wungong Dam
  • Serpentine Pipehead Dam
  • Serpentine Main Dam
  • North Dandalup Dam
  • South Dandalup Dam

Thank you for your co-operation.


Media Enquiries:

Contact: Clare Lugar

Position: Manager Media and Strategic Communications

Phone: (08) 9420 2555