Perth metro weekly water update - 13 September 2019

 

	Target	Actual
September water use to date	8 billion litres	8 billion litres
Dam storage levels	N/A	52 per cent
Weekly streamflow into dams	N/A	33 billion litres
September rainfall to date	87 mm (August average rainfall 1994-2017)	18.6 mm
Note: 1 billion litres = approx. 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 last week was 637 million litres per day, which was above the forecast of 606 million litres.

 

Daily water use for the last five days
Date	Actual water use (million litres)	Forecast (million litres)
13/09/2019	628	613
12/09/2019	661	613
11/09/2019	628	613
10/09/2019	676	613
9/09/2019	675	595
Note: water use is calculated up to 8am each day for the previous 24 hour period

 

Since 1 July 2019, we have used 44.1 billion litres of water – which is over the forecast for this period.

 

Dam level (total for 15 dams)

The dam storage levels have remained stable this week and are sitting at a combined 51.9 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 32.8 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 summer sprinkler roster now applies but there’s no need to rush out and turn your sprinklers on as gardens are still getting plenty of water from rainfall.

 

Since 1 January 2019, we have taken a total of 6166 actions (warnings + fines) compared with 6242 actions for the same period in 2018.

 

Annual rainfall

 

Perth has received 529.2 mm of rainfall since 1 January 2019. The cumulative average (1994-2017) rainfall for the January to September period is 659.2 mm.

 

General water news

 

Our leak detection dog, Kep, has been trained to use her extraordinary sense of smell to detect leaks in underground water mains so they can be repaired.

 

Over the past eight months alone, she has covered around 190 kilometres across the Wheatbelt and found 25 water leaks, helping to save our precious drinking water.

 

Landsdale Primary School recently received a visit from Kep - named after the Noongar word for water – after the school won our Seek a Leak competition.

 

As part of Kep’s visit to the school, the springer spaniel and handler Andrew Blair demonstrated to students how she keeps her leak detection skills sharp when she’s not working.

 

Water Corporation manages more than 34,000 kilometres of water mains across 2.6 million square kilometres of Western Australia. This is why we are always looking for new and innovative ways to detect leaks and save water.