2 August 2010
Dams Bank Over a Month’s Supply in July
Wetter catchments and reduced water use made up for poor rainfall in July, helping Melbourne’s water storages continue their recovery.
Storages started July at 33.7% full before rising 2.3% to end the month at 36.0% - a net gain of more than 40 billion litres. The increase is the equivalent of almost six weeks’ water supply for Melbourne.
Rainfall over the major catchments was less than half the 30-year average, but with the catchments damp from a wet autumn and June, July saw the highest monthly streamflows for the year.
Manager of Water Supply, John Woodland, said the July result was a reversal of how storages had performed in the first half of the year.
“A lot of the good rain we had earlier in the year was absorbed by the catchments, with little left over for the dams,” said Mr Woodland.
“We saw the flipside of this in July, with less rainfall but a much higher of amount of water flowing into the dams.
“This indicates that the catchments were much more productive and are expected to continue to better convert rainfall into runoff.
“Our wettest months are ahead of us, so we’d expect to see any further rain result in strong storage gains,” he added.
Melbourne’s storages are now holding 160 billion litres more water than at the same time last year, when the dams were 26.9% full.
Mr Woodland said water saving had continued to put Melbourne’s storages further along the road to recovery.
“Households, business and industry played their part in the July storage boost by continuing to be sensible with their water use, using 16 million litres a day less than the same period last year,” said Mr Woodland.
“Month after month this year water use has continued to fall below historical levels even though restrictions have been eased.
“This shows that Melburnians are holding on to their water-saving habits and playing a key part in helping storages recover from last year’s record low,” he added.
The July storage boost included the addition of 10.5 billion litres of water stored in Lake Eildon for Melbourne as part of the Sugarloaf Pipeline Project.
Media Contact: Nicolas McGay +613 9235 2278 +61 (0)438 981 836
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