Weekly water update 20 December 2019

 

	Target	Actual
December water use to date	20 billion litres	22 billion litres
Dam storage levels	N/A	48 per cent
Weekly streamflow into dams	N/A	44 billion litres
December rainfall to date	11.7 mm (December average rainfall 1994-2017)	2.20 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 past week was 1123 million litres per day, which was above the forecast of 998 million litres.

 

Daily water use for the last five days
Date	Actual water use (million litres)	Forecast (million litres)
20/12/2019	916	1007
19/12/2019	1092	1007
18/12/2019	1104	1007
17/12/2019	1114	1007
16/12/2019	1254	986
Note: water use is calculated up to 8am each day for the previous 24 hour period

 

Since 1 July 2019, we have used 129.9 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 48.3 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 9240 actions (warnings + fines) compared with 8522 actions for the same period in 2018.

 

Annual rainfall

 

Perth has received 582.24 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

 

We’re urging Western Australians to trap the fat this Christmas, and no, we’re not referring to waistlines.

 

Rinsing or flushing of fats, oils, grease and leftovers can cause problems all year round, but can be especially harmful to the wastewater system at this time of year when so many of us are preparing meals for the big day.

 

You may not realise when fat cools down it solidified and can cause serious pipe blockages in internal property plumbing or its wastewater system.

 

Blockages can lead to wastewater backing up in our system and possibly overflowing into your house, street, or nearby park. 

 

The solution is simple, trap the fat in a sealed container and bin it, don’t pour it down the sink.

 

The extra effort will also mean the only jolly man to visit your house this festive season will be in a red suit bearing gifts, and not a plumber you’ve had to call out.