Table showing target and actual water use, dam levels, streamflow and rainfall
Target Actual
August water use to date

16 billion litres

17.1 billion litres
Dam storage levels N/A 59.2%
Monthly streamflow into dams N/A 43.14 billion litres
August rainfall to date 132.90 mm (August average rainfall 1876-2016) 51.20 mm
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 631 million litres per day – above the demand forecast of 602 million litres per day.

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)
27/08/2021 616 606
26/08/2021 635 606
25/08/2021 657 606
24/08/2021 641 606
23/08/2021 671 595
Note, water use is calculated up to 8am each day for the previous 24 hour period.

Since 1 July 2021, we have used 35.71 billion litres of water – which is 1.89 billion litres above the forecast target for this period.

Dam levels (total for 15 dams)

The dam storage levels are slightly up on last week and are sitting at a combined 59.2 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 94.2 billion litres of streamflow. The post-1975 average for the May to April period (called the streamflow year) is 175.59 billion litres.

Sprinkler roster compliance

Since 1 January 2021, we have taken a total of 4,368 actions (warnings + fines) compared with 4,191 actions for the same period in 2020.

Annual rainfall

Perth has received 650 mm of rainfall since 1 January 2021. The average (1876-2016) rainfall for the same period to the end of August is 676.5mm.