Metro region water update - 28 December 2017

Note: 1 billion litres = 1 Subiaco Oval filled to the goalposts

Backyard pools and water use… the facts…

According to our last major study into water use (Perth Residential Water Use Study 2008/09) swimming pools and spas accounted for around 2,000 litres per person per year, which was approximately 2% of overall use.

Nineteen per cent of households had a swimming pool.  Forty four per cent of all pools were topped up between 15 to 60 minutes each week.

If all households with a pool used covers, the annual water use would reduce to approximately 1,000 litres per person.  This could save nearly two billion litres of water per year across Perth.

With more than your entire pool’s volume of water being lost every year through evaporation, you can save water by regularly using a pool cover.

Pool covers can also reduce the energy required to heat pools and reduce the amount of cleaning.

Water use

Our average daily water use last week was 993 million litres, which was below the forecast of 1.03 billion litres.  Our financial year to date water use is 129.3 billion litres, which is slightly below the 130.6 billion litres we forecast.

Dam levels

Over the last seven days, Perth’s dam storage levels dropped 0.3% to 43.5%.  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 127 warnings and 104 fines.  So far in 2017 we have taken a total of 9,867 actions (warnings + fines) compared to 10,737 actions for the same period in 2016.

Rainfall

The average monthly rainfall for December is 13.1mm.  So far this month, Perth has received 40.6mm of rainfall.  Since 1 January 2017, Perth has received 854mm of rainfall, which is more than the average of 844.5mm (January to December period).