Perth metro weekly water update 13 December 2019

 

	Target	Actual
December water use to date	13 billion litres	14 billion litres
Dam storage levels	N/A	49 per cent
Weekly streamflow into dams	N/A	44 billion litres
December rainfall to date	11.7 mm (December average rainfall 1994-2017)	0.40 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 1066 million litres per day, which was above the forecast of 977 million litres.

 

Daily water use for the last five days
Date	Actual water use (million litres)	Forecast (million litres)
13/12/2019	1205	986
12/12/2019	1183	986
11/12/2019	1108	986
10/12/2019	999	986
09/12/2019	986	962
Note: water use is calculated up to 8am each day for the previous 24 hour period

 

Since 1 July 2019, we have used 122 billion litres of water – which is 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 48.7 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 2019, we have taken a total of 8959 actions (warnings + fines) compared with 8284 actions for the same period in 2018.

 

Annual rainfall

 

Perth has received 580.44 mm of rainfall since 1 January 2019. The cumulative average (1994-2017) rainfall for the January to December period is 732.8 mm.

 

General water news

 

All Perth dam picnic areas will be closed from today, Friday 13 December to Sunday 15 December, inclusive, due to the heatwave and the closure of some national parks by Department Parks and Wildlife.

 

We ask you please avoid these areas and observe all signage. For more information, visit http://emergency.wa.gov.au

 

The areas closed to the public will be:

- Mundaring Weir
- Victoria Dam
- Churchman Brook Dam
- Canning Dam
- Wungong Dam
- Serpentine Dam
- Serpentine Pipehead Dam
- North Dandalup Dam, and
- South Dandalup Dam

 

Thank you for your co-operation.