Weekly Water Update - 9 August 2019

 

 

 

	Target	Actual
August water use to date	5.1 billion litres	5.2 billion litres
Dam storage levels	N/A	47.5 per cent
Weekly streamflow into dams	N/A	17.2 billion litres
August rainfall to date	122.1 mm (August average rainfall 1994-2017)	19.89 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 559 million litres per day, which was below the forecast of 566 million litres.

 

Daily water use for the last five days
Date	Actual water use (million litres)	Forecast (million litres)
08/08/2019	568	565
07/08/2019	591	565
06/08/2019	575	565
05/08/2019	573	565
04/08/2019	586	565
Note: water use is calculated up to 8am each day for the previous 24 hour period

 

Since 1 July 2019, we have used 23.1 billion litres of water – which is just over the forecast for this period.

 

Dam level (total for 15 dams)

The dam storage levels have remained stable this week and are sitting at a combined 47.5 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 17.2 billion litres of streamflow.  The post-1975 average for the May to April period (called the streamflow year) is 187.2 billion litres.

 

Sprinkler roster compliance

 

The Winter Sprinkler Switch-off is now in place. This means you need to ensure your sprinklers are kept switched off until the end of winter.

 

Our team of inspectors issued 144 warnings and 30 fines this week.  Since 1 January 2019, we have taken a total of 5600 actions (warnings + fines) compared with 5710 actions for the same period in 2018.

 

Annual rainfall

 

Perth has received 416.09 mm of rainfall since 1 January 2019.  The cumulative average (1994-2017) rainfall for the January to August period is 572.2 mm.

 

General water news

 

While many people in Perth will rejoice at the thought of a few sunny days ahead, spare a thought for the amount of streamflow currently going into our dams.

 

With only three weeks left of winter, we have only received 17.2 billion litres of streamflow since 1 May 2019. This is compared to last year, where we had already received 102 billion litres by this time of year.

 

The current streamflow level is only just above the amount received in 2015 where we had our worst streamflow since records began.

 

We know that 17 billion litres sounds like a lot of water – doesn’t it? So to put it into perspective, on a really hot day in Perth we will use over one billion litres of water in just one day. So that’s the equivalent of just a couple of weeks of water use on hot summer days for Perth, which we know can easily happen.

 

So what can you do? By all means enjoy the sunny weekend, but think about how you can save precious water in your home – check for leaks in your home, take shorter showers, and don’t forget to leave your sprinklers off while it’s still cool, and there’s plenty of moisture in the air.