Melbourne Water

Weekly Water Report

19 March 2010

Storages down 0.2% after dry week

Water storages have dropped by 0.2% of capacity after a week of no rainfall.

The decline represents an overall decrease of 4.3 billion litres.

The major catchments received no rain over the past week, compared with the long-term average for the period, 13.5 mm.

As a result, streamflow into the major reservoirs was also below the historical average for this time of year.

The 2.4 billion litres of streamflow into the major reservoirs was 18.5% below the average of 3.1 billion litres.

Storages are now 34.5% (624.6 billion litres) full, compared with 30.0% (531.1 billion litres) at the same time last year - a difference of 93.5 billion litres.

Storages typically decline in March and without consistent rainfall, this year will be no exception.

Melburnians helped mitigate the storage drop by meeting the water consumption target of 155 litres per person per day for the second week in a row.

Average daily household water use was 155 litres each.

More information on restrictions and tips on how to reach the target are available from Target 155 or by contacting the government water retailers.

Stage 3a restrictions and Target 155 are currently in place.

Daily residential water use for Melbourne

   PREVIOUS WEEKS
   CURRENT WEEK
   TARGET 155

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 1997-2010 (opens in a new window)

   2007-08     2008-09     2009-10  
100% capacity = 1810.5 GL
NB: Prior to 26 June 2009, 100% capacity = 1773 GL

Total system storage (as of 18 March 2010)

Reservoir	Capacity at full supply (ML)	Current Volume (ML)	% Full
Thomson	1,068,000	228,842	21.4%
Cardinia	287,000	98,637	34.4%
Upper Yarra	200,000	132,192	66.1%
Sugarloaf	96,000	58,060	60.5%
Silvan	40,000	35,529	88.8%
Tarago	37,500	21,653	57.7%
Yan Yean	30,000	8,977	29.9%
Greenvale	27,000	19,396	71.8%
Maroondah	22,000	18,939	86.1%
O'Shannassy	3,000	2,362	78.7%
Total	1,810,500	624,587	34.5%

Rainfall recorded at the reservoirs

Catchment	12 Mar - 18 Mar 2010	Average for the period*	Variation	12 Mar - 18 Mar 2009
Thomson	0 mm	13.4 mm	100.0% below	37.8 mm
Upper Yarra	0 mm	13.4 mm	100.0% below	11.2 mm
O'Shannassy	0 mm	16.3 mm	100.0% below	42 mm
Maroondah	0 mm	13.6 mm	100.0% below	31 mm

* Average (30 year mean 1980-2009)

Stream flow for the major catchments

Catchment	12 Mar - 18 Mar 2010	Average for the period*	Variation	12 Mar - 18 Mar 2009
Thomson	906 ML	960 ML	5.6% below	1029 ML
Upper Yarra	262 ML	650 ML	59.7% below	800 ML
O'Shannassy	836 ML	700 ML	19.4% above	689 ML
Maroondah	432 ML	680 ML	36.5% below	576 ML
Total	2436 ML	2990 ML	18.5% below	3094 ML

* Average (30 year mean 1980-2009)

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

Yarra Catchment
Report for period 11 March - 17 March 2010 (inclusive):

• Current seven day rolling average flows for Yarra River @ Yarra Glen = 239.2 ML/day (down 82.9 ML/day from the previous week)
• Current seven day rolling average flows for Yarra River @ Warrandyte = 235 ML/day (down 110.5 ML/day from the previous week)
• Current seven day rolling average flows for Little Yarra River @ Yarra Junction = 29.1 ML/day (down 9.5 ML/day from the previous week)
• Current seven day rolling average flows for Woori Yallock Creek @ Yellingbo = 27.2 ML/day (down 15.3 ML/day from the previous week)
• Total rainfall at Upper Yarra Reservoir for March is 27.8 mm (long-term monthly average for March is 57.8 mm)
• Total rainfall at Silvan Reservoir for March is 80.4 mm (long-term monthly average for March is 58.6 mm)

Maribyrnong Catchment
Report for period 11 March - 17 March 2010 (inclusive):

Rosslyne Reservoir
Melbourne Water's Capacity Share of the storage as at 15 March 2010 was 33 Megalitres (ML)

• Current release from Rosslyne (as at 15 March 2010) to meet bulk entitlement demands = 0 ML/day
• Current seven day rolling average flows for Jacksons Creek @ Sunbury = 6.4 ML/day (down 14.1 ML/day from the previous week)
• Current seven day rolling average flows for Deep Creek @ Bulla = 50.7 ML/day (down 146.0 ML/day from the previous week)
• Current seven day rolling average flows for Maribyrnong River @ Keilor (Brimbank Park) = 47.1 ML/day (down 116.6 ML/day from the previous week)
• Total rainfall at Rosslyne Reservoir for March is 56.2 mm (long-term monthly average for March is 40.6 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.

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