Perth metro weekly water update - 17 May 2019

Perth metro weekly water update – 17 May 2019

 

	Target	Actual
May water use to date	12 billion litres	13 billion litres
Dam storage levels	N/A	45 per cent
Weekly streamflow into dams	N/A	1 billion litres
May rainfall to date	88.7 mm (May average rainfall 1994-2017)   116.9 mm (May average rainfall 1876-2016)	11.4 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 762,000,000 litres (762 million litres) per day, which was above the forecast of 709,000,000 litres (709 million litres).

 

Daily water use for the last five days
Date	Actual water use – litres	Forecast – litres
17/05/2019	692,000,000	698,000,000
16/05/2019	748,000,000	698,000,000
15/05/2019	791,000,000	698,000,000
14/05/2019	764,000,000	698,000,000
13/05/2019	832,000,000	722,000,000
Note: water use is calculated up to 8am each day for the previous 24 hour period

 

Since 1 July 2018, we have used 259 billion litres of water - this is about four billion litres above what we had forecast. 

 

Dam level (total for 15 dams)

 

The dam storage levels have remained stable this week and is sitting at 45 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 0.7 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 60 warnings and 28 fines this week.  Since 1 January 2019, we have taken a total of 3369 actions (warnings + fines) compared with 3510 actions for the same period in 2018.

 

Annual rainfall

 

Perth has received 69.2 mm of rainfall since 1 January 2019.  The cumulative average (1994-2017) rainfall for the January to May period is 176.6 mm.

 

General water news

 

We are now in the final weeks of the two-day-a-week sprinkler roster, a permanent water efficiency measure the Perth community has been successfully following for nearly two decades.

 

Fines and warnings for breaching the roster were down from last week, which is great news, with only 28 fines and 60 warnings across the metropolitan area.

 

Now we are getting some rain and cooler temperatures, remember to turn your sprinklers off altogether when it has rained, or rain is forecast.

 

……….and the big Winter Sprinkler Switch-Off is just around the corner!