Perth weekly water update - 7 May 2021
| Target | Actual | |
|---|---|---|
| May water use to date | 7.6 billion litres |
7.7 billion litres |
| Dam storage levels | N/A | 42.4% |
| Monthly streamflow into dams | N/A | 0 billion litres |
| May rainfall to date | 116.9mm (May average rainfall 1876-2016) | 51.6mm |
| 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 760 million litres per day, which was below the forecast of 772 million litres.
Daily water use for the last 5 days
| Date | Actual water use (million litres) | Forecast water use (million litres) |
|---|---|---|
| 7/05/2021 | 702 | 762 |
| 6/05/2021 | 723 | 762 |
| 5/05/2021 | 749 | 762 |
| 4/05/2021 | 776 | 762 |
| 3/05/2021 | 842 | 784 |
| Note, water use is calculated up to 8am each day for the previous 24 hour period. | ||
Since 1 July 2020, we have used 257.15 billion litres of water – which is 0.82 billion litres below the forecast target for this period.
Dam levels (total for 15 dams)
The dam storage levels have increased slightly this week and are sitting at a combined 42.4 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 2021 the dams have received 0.0 billion litres of streamflow. The post-1975 average for the May to April period (called the streamflow year) is 175.63 billion litres.
Sprinkler roster compliance
Since 1 January 2021, we have taken a total of 1,933 actions (warnings + fines) compared with 2,330 actions for the same period in 2020.
Annual rainfall
Perth has received 171.6mm of rainfall since 1 January 2021. The average (1994-2019) rainfall for the same period to the end of May is 173.5mm.
General water news
Here, at Water Corporation, our favourite employee is brown and white, furry, loves tennis balls….oh, and has a real knack for detecting water leaks!
Yes, we’re referring to Kep, our English springer spaniel, who celebrated her fourth birthday with a special lunch at Parliament House hosted by Water Minister Dave Kelly.
Kep, whose name is the Noongar word for water, was trained from birth to sniff out underground leaks which can be buried more than a metre deep.
She works in rural and remote areas with long stretches of buried pipelines and where regular acoustic leak detection methods are less effective or cost prohibitive.
She was the first leak detection dog to be employed by an Australian water utility. Since starting with us in 2018, she’s sniffed out a total of 92 hidden leaks across the Great Southern, South West Perth Metro and Mid West region, helping save an estimated 880 million litres of precious drinking water.
Happy birthday, Kep, and keep up your amazing work!