Table showing target and actual water use, dam levels, streamflow and rainfall
Target Actual
November water use to date 11.3 billion litres
10.3 billion litres
Dam storage levels N/A 50.1 per cent
Monthly streamflow into dams N/A 0.17 billion litres
November rainfall to date 22.4mm (Oct average rainfall 1876-2016) 66.0mm
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 782 million litres per day, which was below the forecast of 875 million litres.

Daily water use for the last 5 days

Table showing daily water use for the last 5 days
Date Actual water use (million litres) Forecast water use (million litres)
13/11/2020 744 888
12/11/2020 735 888
11/11/2020 702 888
10/11/2020 664 888
9/11/2020 867 857
Note, water use is calculated up to 8am each day for the previous 24 hour period.

Since 1 July 2020, we have used 89.9 billion litres of water – which is 0.5 billion litres below the forecast target for this period.

Dam levels (total for 15 dams)

The dam storage levels have decreased slightly this week and are sitting at a combined 50.1 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 2020 the dams have received 39.5 billion litres of streamflow. The post-1975 average for the May to April period (called the streamflow year) is 176.73 billion litres.

Sprinkler roster compliance

Since 1 January 2020, we have taken a total of 5,025 actions (warnings + fines) compared with 7,734 actions for the same period in 2019.

Annual rainfall

Perth has received 647.4mm of rainfall since 1 January 2020. The average (1994-2019) rainfall for the same period to the end of November is 716.3mm.

General water news

Life at Water Corporation isn’t all drinking water and wastewater. In Busselton, we’ve been busy building possum rope bridges, ahead of a $25.6 million upgrade to the Vasse Diversion Drain.

The work, which will improve flood mitigation for the town, has involved extensive collaboration with a range of environmental groups and specialists, including world-renowned restoration ecologist Professor Kingsley Dixon.

An extensive $3 million revegetation plan will see more than 130,000 seedlings planted across 10 hectares to improve diversity in the local ecosystem. 

While the local western ringtail possums swing by on their 15 rope bridges, we didn’t forget the protected Carter's freshwater mussel – relocating more than 35,000 of the bivalve molluscs found in the drain.

You can read more here.