Perth metro weekly water update 25 October 2019

 

	Target	Actual
October water use to date	18 billion litres	19 billion litres
Dam storage levels	N/A	51 per cent
Weekly streamflow into dams	N/A	41 billion litres
October rainfall to date	38.7 mm (October average rainfall 1994-2017)	11.64 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 815 million litres per day, which was above the forecast of 764 million litres.

 

Daily water use for the last five days
Date	Actual water use (million litres)	Forecast (million litres)
25/10/2019	797	777
24/10/2019	760	777
23/10/2019	813	777
22/10/2019	804	777
21/10/2019	868	745
Note: water use is calculated up to 8am each day for the previous 24 hour period

 

Since 1 July 2019, we have used 75.8 billion litres of water – which is 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 51.4 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 2019 the dams have received 41 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 7043 actions (warnings + fines) compared with 6855 actions for the same period in 2018.

 

Annual rainfall

 

Perth has received 553.64 mm of rainfall since 1 January 2019. The cumulative average (1994-2017) rainfall for the January to October period is 697.9 mm.

 

General water news

 

With National Water Week drawing to a close, we thought we’d use this space to reflect on the important week that was – especially with our younger generation doing a great job to help spread the waterwise message.

 

This year’s National Water Week theme was ‘It’s time to change the world’ and it was fantastic to see students throughout the State take small steps to make the world a better place for generations to come.

 

As part of an inaugural Think Tank event, students from six Perth metropolitan schools were challenged to find innovative solutions to the question 'How can Perth become a leading waterwise city by 2030?'.

Talented young writers from the Literature Centre’s Talented Young Writers' Programme also put pen to paper as part of the Words for Water Writing Challenge.

 

The exciting challenge was open to nearly 1,800 Year 6-12 students who were encouraged to submit a short piece of literature reflective of this year's National Water Week theme.

 

We also welcomed Hammond Park Catholic Primary School as a Waterwise School while Bull Creek Primary School fittingly celebrated a decade of Waterwise education today.

 

These are just a few great events that marked 2019 National Water Week.