Weekly water update March 29

 

	Target	Actual
March water use to date	27 billion litres	27 billion litres
Dam storage levels	N/A	47 per cent
Cumulative streamflow into dams	185 billion litres (Post 1975 May to March average)	153 billion litres
March rainfall to date	21 mm (March mean rainfall 1994-2017)   19.5 mm (March average rainfall 1876-2016)	5.6 mm

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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 water use over the last week was 914,000,000 litres (914 million litres) per day, which was above the forecast of 902,000,000 litres (902 million litres).

 

Daily water use for the last five days
Date	Actual water use – litres	Forecast – litres
Friday, 29 March 2019	880,000,000	889,000,000
Thursday, 28 March 2019	928,000,000	889,000,000
Wednesday, 27 March 2019	945,000,000	889,000,000
Tuesday, 26 March 2019	910,000,000	889,000,000
Monday, 25 March 2019	945,000,000	918,000,000

Note: water use above is calculated up to 8am each day for the previous 24 hour period

 

Since 1 July 2018, we have used 220 billion litres of water - this is about four billion litres above what we had forecast. 

 

Dam level (total for 15 dams)

 

The dam storage level has not changed over the past week and is sitting at 47 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).  Dam levels are no longer an accurate indicator of the health of Perth's overall water supply situation.

 

Streamflow (total for 15 dams)

 

From 1 May 2018 to 28 March 2019 the dams had received 153 billion litres of streamflow.  The post-1975 average for the May to March period is 185 billion litres.

 

Sprinkler roster compliance

 

The two-day-a-week sprinkler roster now applies across Perth, so make sure your sprinklers are programmed for your rostered water days and only to come on once, either before 9am or after 6pm.

 

Our team of inspectors issued 88 warnings and 54 fines this week.  Since 1 January 2019, we have taken a total of 2560 actions (warnings + fines) compared with 2674 actions for the same period in 2018.

 

Annual rainfall

 

Perth has received 13 mm of rainfall since 1 January 2019.  Average rainfall for this period (1994-2017) is 50.7 mm.

 

General water news

 

Why do so many couples argue about the dishwasher?

 

Do you ever argue with your significant other about the best way to do the dishes?  Well, if you answered yes, you’re far from alone.

 

According to dishwasher manufacturer Bosch, more than 40 per cent of US couples say they argue about the correct way to load the dishes.

The most common arguments are whether to place the knives facing up or down and whether to put the plastic containers on the top or bottom rack.

 

Manufacturers’ say rinsing dishes beforehand is unnecessary and can end up using more water than it takes to run the dishwasher.

 

They also recommend reading your dishwasher’s manual, noting that consumers have no idea about specific settings that could be helpful.

 

For more tips on dishwashers (who knew this was a thing?) visit our website.