Perth weekly water update - 19 February 2021
| Target | Actual | |
|---|---|---|
| February water use to date | 19.5 billion litres |
18.7 billion litres |
| Dam storage levels | N/A | 44.8% |
| Monthly streamflow into dams | N/A | 0 billion litres |
| February rainfall to date | 12.5mm (January average rainfall 1876-2016) | 38.6mm |
| 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 984 million litres per day, which was below the forecast of 1,019 million litres
Daily water use for the last 5 days
| Date | Actual water use (million litres) | Forecast water use (million litres) |
|---|---|---|
| 19/02/2021 | 922 | 1,012 |
| 18/02/2021 | 937 | 1,012 |
| 17/02/2021 | 1,010 | 1,012 |
| 16/02/2021 | 1,031 | 1,012 |
| 15/02/2021 | 1,067 | 1,027 |
| Note, water use is calculated up to 8am each day for the previous 24 hour period. | ||
Since 1 July 2020 to date, we have used 187.82 billion litres of water – which is 1.59 billion litres below the forecast target for this period.
Dam levels (total for 15 dams)
The dam storage levels have decreased slightly this week and are sitting at a combined 44.8 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 42.5 billion litres of streamflow. The post-1975 average for the May to April period (called the streamflow year) is 175.79 billion litres.
Sprinkler roster compliance
Since 1 January 2021, we have taken a total of 932 actions (warnings + fines) compared with 1,441 actions for the same period in 2020.
Annual rainfall
Perth has received 38.8mm of rainfall since 1 January 2021. The average (1994-2019) rainfall for the same period to the end of February is 31.8 mm.
General water news
Have you ever wondered what happens to the water you’ve used after it heads down the plughole?
It comes to us! Here’s a behind-the-scenes look at what happens once it arrives at one of our water resource recovery facilities and how the water continues on its journey.
While 99.97 per cent of the used water is actual H2O, there's also oil, grease, detergents, nutrients, bacteria, and bulkier items like wet wipes and cotton buds, as well as some other pretty nasty stuff that should never make its way into our pipes.
Used water flows by gravity through a network of larger pipes before making its way to one of our facilities.
Our job is to make sure the used water is treated and safely returned to the environment. We do this in the most sustainable way possible.