Perth Weekly Water Update - 11 February 2022
| Target | Actual | |
|---|---|---|
| February water use to date |
10.3 billion litres |
11.5 billion litres |
| Dam storage levels | N/A | 55.4% |
| Monthly streamflow into dams | N/A | 0 billion litres |
| February rainfall to date | 12.5mm (January average rainfall 1876-2016) | 1.6mm |
| Note: 1 billion litres = approximately 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 1,171 million litres per day – slightly above the demand forecast of 1,033 million litres per day.
Daily water use for the last five days
| Date | Actual water use (million litres) | Forecast water use (million litres) |
|---|---|---|
| 10/02/2022 | 1194 | 1028 |
| 09/02/2022 | 1066 | 1028 |
| 08/02/2022 | 984 | 1028 |
| 07/02/2022 | 982 | 1038 |
| 06/02/2022 | 1299 | 1038 |
| Note: water use is calculated up to 8am each day for the previous 24 hour period. | ||
Since 1 July 2021 to date, we have used 186.68 billion litres of water – which is 4.98 billion litres above the forecast target for this period.
Dam levels (total for 15 dams)
The dam storage levels are slightly down on last week and are sitting at a combined 55.4 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 2021, the dams have received 138.7 billion litres of streamflow. The post-1975 average for the May to April period (called the streamflow year) is 175.4 billion litres.
Sprinkler roster compliance
Since 1 January 2022, we have taken a total of 876 actions (warnings + fines) compared with 822 actions for the same period in 2021.
Annual rainfall
Perth has received 1.6mm of rainfall since 1 January 2022. The average (1876-2016) rainfall for the same period to the end of January is 22.2mm.
General water news
This summer has been an extremely hot one, with the Bureau of Meteorology announcing last week Perth has already broken the city’s record for the most days at 40 degrees or over.
While it’s tempting during sweltering days to crank the evaporative air conditioning or have longer showers to keep cool, it’s important to be mindful of the water we use to ensure we’re not wasting it unnecessarily.
One of the ways you can do this is by checking your evaporative air-conditioning units to ensure they’re running efficiently, or by keeping your showers to an appropriate length with the help of our 4-minute shower songs, available via our Shower Song Spotify playlist.
For more helpful tips and tricks to save water this summer, visit our summer water-saving hacks here.