Metropolitan weekly water update 7 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 633 million litres, which was below the forecast of 641 million litres.  Since 1 July 2017 we have used 272 billion litres of water, which is 7 billion litres below the 279 billion litres we had forecast.

Dam levels

Over the last seven days, Perth’s dam storage levels have increased (by about 2 billion litres) from 138 billion litres to 140 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 is now in place for scheme and bore water users in Perth, Mandurah, parts of the South West and Great Southern.

Across the State, our inspectors issued 279 warnings and 41 fines in the past week. This includes 213 warnings and 27 infringements as part of the Winter Sprinkler Switch-off in the metropolitan area. 

Since 1 January 2018 we have taken a total of 3,988 actions (warnings + fines) compared with 4,310 actions for the same period in 2017.

Rainfall

Perth has received 43mm of rainfall so far this June - the median rainfall in Perth for June is 123.2mm. Since 1 January 2018, Perth has received 240mm of rainfall – cumulative median rainfall from January to June is 257.1mm.

Check your sprinkler systems after power outages

Remember to check your sprinkler systems after power outages caused by recent storms.

Some automatic sprinkler systems re-set after a power outage, which could result in sprinklers coming on outside of rostered watering days or during the Winter Sprinkler Switch-off.

Struggling to work out how to program you sprinkler system? The Watershed Water Systems website contains the manuals of most sprinkler systems sold in Western Australia over the past 20 years.

These can be downloaded from www.thewatershed.biz/downloads