8 December 2011
Dry week takes the pace off dam increase
A week of warm weather and little rain has slowed down the rate of increase in Melbourne’s dam levels.
Storages made a slight gain, increasing by 0.2% of capacity, representing a net gain of 3.9 billion litres.
The four major catchments received an average of 2mm of rain, which was 90% below the long-term average for the period of 20mm.
The small storage increase was attributed to the flow-on effects of the previous week’s rain, which resulted in 13 billion litres of inflow to the major dams.
This was 67% above the long-term average for the period (8 billion litres).
Storages typically decline by about 0.2% a week in December, so the weekly gain is a good result.
Water storages are now 66% (1,196 billion litres) full, compared with 53% (951 billion litres) at the same time last year – a difference of 245 billion litres.
Melburnians used an average of 151 litres of water per person per day over the past week. This is 10 litres per day more than the previous week.
Information on water restrictions and tips on how to save water are available from water.vic.gov.au or by contacting the government water retailers.
Stage 1 restrictions are currently in place.
Media Contact: Nicolas McGay +613 9235 2278 +61 (0)438 981 836