Weekly water update for 22 February 2018

Note: 1 billion litres = approx. 400 Olympic swimming pools

Water use

Our average daily water use last week was 972 million litres, which was below the forecast of 1.054 billion litres.  Our financial year to date water use is 183.5 billion litres, which is below the 190.6 billion litres we forecast.

Dam levels

Over the last seven days, there was no change in Perth’s dam storage levels and they remain at 41.4%.  Perth’s dams store water from three different sources, which are… groundwater and desalinated seawater transferred from treatment plants as well as streamflow (produced by rainfall).

Sprinkler roster compliance

The two-day-per week sprinkler roster now applies, and last week our inspectors issued 130 warnings and 151 fines.  This calendar year we have taken a total of 1635 actions (warnings + fines) compared with 1874 actions for the same period in 2017.

Rainfall

So far this month Perth has received 0.2mm of rainfall – the average is 12.5mm.  For 2017 Perth received 854mm of rainfall, which was slightly above the yearly average of 844.5mm.

General water news

Earlier this month we launched a new behaviour change campaign to encourage people to take shorter showers.  Showers account for around 25 per cent of household water use – so there are significant savings to be made by keeping showers to four minutes or less.

People are being encouraged to download a free four minute song – available from most major streaming platforms – and pop it on at the start of a shower. 

The song was written by Western Australian artists who are passionate about the water saving message.