Weekly water use metro area 14 June 2018

Note: 1 billion litres = approx. 400 Olympic swimming pools.  Please note these figures are rounded (except for rainfall) to the nearest whole number.

Water use

Average daily water use over the last week was 621 million litres, which was slightly below the forecast of 623 million litres.  Since 1 July 2017 we have used 276 billion litres of water, which is 7 billion litres below the 283 billion litres we had forecast.

Dam levels

Over the last seven days, Perth’s dam storage levels have increased (by about 3 billion litres) from 140 billion litres to 143 billion litres of usable storage. Perth’s dams store water from three different sources… groundwater and desalinated seawater transferred from treatment plants as well as streamflow (produced by rainfall).

Sprinkler roster compliance

The Winter Sprinkler Switch-Off now applies, and our inspectors issued 213 warnings and 59 fines last week.  Since 1 January 2018 we have taken a total of 4260 actions (warnings + fines) compared with 4853 actions for the same period in 2017.

Rainfall

Perth has received 80.4mm of rainfall so far this June - the median rainfall in Perth for June is 173.1mm. Since 1 January 2018, Perth has received 277.6mm of rainfall – cumulative median rainfall from January to end June is 375.9mm.

Singapore in the spotlight…

Singapore has been grabbing the headlines this week so we thought it would be a great opportunity to tell you a little bit about its water situation. 

PUB is Singapore’s National Water Agency and much like the Water Corporation has had to deal with some water supply challenges.

With limited land to collect and store rainwater, Singapore faced droughts, floods and water pollution in the early years of nation building.  These challenges inspired Singapore to diversify its water supply – known as the ‘four national taps’.  Its water comes from local catchments, is imported, recycled (NEWater) and desalinated.

Here in Perth we have done much the same over the last decade – we have moved from using two sources of water (groundwater and dams) to using four sources of water (groundwater, dams, desalination and Groundwater Replenishment).

To find out more about where your water comes from visit https://www.watercorporation.com.au/water-supply/our-water-sources