Perth metro weekly water update - 18 September 2020
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Target |
Actual |
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11.4 billion litres |
11.8 billion litres |
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N/A |
50.2 per cent |
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N/A |
10.25 billion litres |
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81 mm (September average rainfall 1876-2016) |
54.8 mm |
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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. |
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Water use
Average water use over the past week was 689 million litres per day, which was above the forecast of 645 million litres.
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Daily water use for the last five days |
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Date |
Actual water use (million litres) |
Forecast (million litres) |
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18/09/2020 |
735 |
653 |
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17/09/2020 |
675 |
653 |
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16/09/2020 |
716 |
653 |
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15/09/2020 |
700 |
653 |
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14/09/2020 |
719 |
633 |
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Note: water use is calculated up to 8am each day for the previous 24 hour period |
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Since 1 July 2020 to date, we have used 47.46 billion litres of water – which is 0.09 billion litres under the forecast target for this period.
Dam level (total for 15 dams)
The dam storage levels have risen slightly this week and are sitting at a combined 50.2 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). 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 2020 the dams have received 31.4 billion litres of streamflow. The post-1975 average for the May to April period (called the streamflow year) is 176.73 billion litres.
Sprinkler roster compliance
Since 1 January 2020, we have taken a total of 4361 actions (warnings + fines) compared with 6279 actions for the same period in 2019.
Annual rainfall
Perth has received 545mm of rainfall since 1 January 2020. The average (1994-2019) rainfall for the same period to the end of September is 656.2 mm.
General water news
Many people might be surprised to learn that Perth has just experienced it’s fourth driest winter on record. In fact, just 490 mm of rain filled metropolitan gauges to the end of August – that’s 27.7 per cent below our long-term average.
The combination of drier soils and reduced rainfall means less water is flowing into Perth dams. To the end of winter, just 21.8 billion litres of streamflow flowed into our dams, which is 90 per cent below the long-term average.
But there is some good news. In the face of climate change Perth no longer relies on rainfall alone for our drinking water. Did you know that nearly half of all water supplied to Perth homes and businesses comes from climate-independent sources such as desalinated seawater and recycled water?
You can help protect our precious drinking water supply by staying waterwise. One way to reduce the amount of water used around the home is to fix any leaky fixtures and fittings.
To make this easier, Water Corporation this week announced an extension to our popular Leak Assist program, which provides $100 rebate on the cost of having a licensed plumber fix household leaks.
To learn more about our Leak Assist program, click here.