30 September 2008
DRY SEPTEMBER KEEPS STORAGE LEVELS STATIC
One of the driest Septembers over the catchments has reinforced the need for Melbourne to keep saving water as the weather starts to heat up.
The catchments that feed Melbourne’s major reservoirs received 64.7mm, about half (54%) of the average rainfall expected for the month, compared with the 12mm that fell in the Melbourne CBD. The reservoirs received just under half (43%) of the average inflows.
Managing Director of Melbourne Water, Rob Skinner, said the drier-than-normal conditions had widened the gap in storages compared to the same time last year.
“September is normally one of the wettest months for our catchments and a time when we’d hope to see them rebound ahead of summer,” said Mr Skinner.
“Unfortunately, the decent rains we saw during winter haven’t carried over into spring and the net effect has been that our storage levels have stayed fairly static.
“Melburnians have done a great job saving water, with a 35% drop in per capita consumption since the 1990s.
“We need households and industry to keep saving water as we head into the warmer months so we can capitalise on the rainfall and inflows we’ll receive in the weeks ahead.”
“It’s important to keep this in perspective. Melbourne’s nine reservoirs give us a massive storage capacity, so even at 34.5% we still have a large amount of water in storage – around 611 billion litres.
“However, these latest figures continue to show that we need to diversity our water sources if we are to meet Melbourne’s needs now and into the future.”
Plans to augment Melbourne’s water supply include:
- Reconnection of Tarago Reservoir – 15 billion litres (mid-2009)
- Sugarloaf Pipeline – 75 billion litres (2010)
- Desalination Plant – 150 billion litres (end-2011)
KEY STATS AND FACTS – IMPACT OF SEPTEMBER ON WATER STORAGES
- For the month, Melbourne’s four major catchments received 64.7mm, about half the average rainfall (54.6%), and inflows of 36.2 billion litres, less than half the average (42.9%).
- Storages rose 0.8% of total system capacity (or 14.7 billion litres)
- Storages at end of September, 34.5%; end of September last year, 39.7%.
- Consumption during September 2008 roughly level (up 0.6%) with September 2007.
More information is available on the Melbourne Water website.
Media Contact: Andrew McGinnes +613 9235 7277 +61 (0)403 930 846