Melbourne Water

Weekly Water Report

16 May 2013

Rain not enough to arrest decline

Above-average rainfall failed to prevent Melbourne's water storage levels from dropping in the past week.

The total storage volume decreased by 0.6% of capacity, representing a net loss of 10.6 billion litres.

The weekly drop includes environmental releases from the dams into the Thomson and Yarra Rivers.

The four major catchments received between 18 and 39 mm of rain, with the average being 26 mm.

This was above the 30-year average for the period (14 mm).

The 2.6 billion litres of stream flow was 37% below the 30-year average for the period (4.2 billion litres).

Water storages are now 70.6% (1,280 billion litres) full, compared with 64.7% (1,172 billion litres) at the same time last year - a difference of 108 billion litres.

Melburnians used an average of 157 litres of water per person per day over the past week. This was 1 litre a day more than the same time last week.

Information on water use rules and tips on how to save water are available from water.vic.gov.au or by contacting the government water retailers.

Permanent water use rules are currently in place.

Daily residential water use for Melbourne

   PREVIOUS WEEKS
   CURRENT WEEK

All figures include non-metropolitan supply for Western Water (supplied since March 2000), which are not included in annual Melbourne metropolitan consumption figures.

Melbourne's water storages

View interactive storage graph for 1998-2013 (opens in a new window)

   2010/11     2011/12     2012/13  
100% capacity = 1,812,175 ML

Total system storage (as of 16 May 2013)

Reservoir	Capacity at full supply (ML)	Current Volume (ML)	% Full
Thomson	1,068,000	781,101	73.1%
Cardinia	286,911	215,932	75.3%
Upper Yarra	200,579	92,785	46.3%
Sugarloaf	96,253	65,491	68.0%
Silvan	40,445	35,250	87.2%
Tarago	37,580	28,010	74.5%
Yan Yean	30,266	26,182	86.5%
Greenvale	26,839	19,999	74.5%
Maroondah	22,179	12,175	54.9%
O'Shannassy	3,123	2,884	92.3%
Total	1,812,175	1,279,809	70.6%

Rainfall recorded at the reservoirs

Catchment	10 May - 16 May 2013	Average for the period*	Variation	10 May - 16 May 2012
Thomson	17.6 mm	12.2 mm	44.3% above	36 mm
Upper Yarra	35 mm	15.2 mm	130.3% above	32.2 mm
O'Shannassy	39.2 mm	18.7 mm	109.6% above	29 mm
Maroondah	17.6 mm	16.9 mm	4.1% above	35.6 mm

* Average (30 year mean 1982-2011)

Stream flow for the major catchments

Catchment	10 May - 16 May 2013	Average for the period*	Variation	10 May - 16 May 2012
Thomson	876 ML	1570 ML	44.2% below	3469 ML
Upper Yarra	588 ML	820 ML	28.3% below	1620 ML
O'Shannassy	769 ML	920 ML	16.4% below	1252 ML
Maroondah	411 ML	860 ML	52.2% below	1646 ML
Total	2644 ML	4170 ML	36.6% below	7987 ML

* Average (30 year mean 1982-2011)

Note: These results are preliminary and are validated at the end of the month.

Yarra Catchment
Report for period 9 May - 15 May 2013 (inclusive):

Current seven day rolling average flows for:

• Yarra River @ Yarra Glen = 305.6 ML/day (down 48.0 ML/day from the previous week)
• Yarra River @ Warrandyte = 293.4 ML/day (down 47.3 ML/day from the previous week)
• Little Yarra River @ Yarra Junction = 52.6 ML/day (down 2.8 ML/day from the previous week)
• Woori Yallock Creek @ Yellingbo = 64 ML/day (down 1.5 ML/day from the previous week)

Total rainfall for May at:

• Upper Yarra Reservoir is 26.2 mm (long-term May average is 79.8 mm)
• Silvan Reservoir is 20 mm (long-term May average is 92.1 mm)

Maribyrnong Catchment
Report for period 9 May - 15 May 2013 (inclusive):

Current seven day rolling average flows for:

• Jacksons Creek @ Sunbury = 6.3 ML/day (down 0.8 ML/day from the previous week)
• Deep Creek @ Bulla = 0.6 ML/day (no change from the previous week)
• Maribyrnong River @ Keilor (Brimbank Park) = 17.3 ML/day (up 2.0 ML/day from the previous week)

Total rainfall for May at:

• Rosslyne Reservoir is 18.4 mm (long-term May average is 49.3 mm)

Note: Passing flows at Keilor, as per the bulk entitlement agreement, require 5.0 ML/day or natural, whichever is the lesser, to be passed at Keilor. Natural flows are based on flows at Deep Ck @ Bulla gauging station.

View our archived weekly water updates.

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