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Dams at highest spring levels in more than 10 years

Thursday, 01 September 2011

Melbourne's dams have entered spring at their highest levels in more than 10 years following good winter rain.

The city's storages started winter at 53.6 per cent full and ended the season at 61.9 per cent, posting a net gain of 133,000 megalitres.

Water Minister Peter Walsh said the recovery of the storages could be attributed both to high winter rainfall and Melburnians' efforts to save water.

"The efforts households continue to make to save water is evident in the difference between consumption this year and 13 years ago.

"In 1998, when the storages were last at these levels coming out of winter, water consumption over the winter period averaged 1143 megalitres a day.

"This year water consumption averaged just 944 megalitres a day, demonstrating that Melburnians have made long-term change in the way they use water."

Mr Walsh said to help households become more water-efficient, the Victorian Coalition Government had invested $40 million in rebates for water-efficient appliances.

Rebates have also been extended for the first time to small businesses, enabling them to claim up to $2000 to make their business more water efficient.

Mr Walsh said it would be important to maintain these water-efficient ways over spring as warmer and drier conditions started to impact on storage levels.

"While winter gave us a welcome result, during August we started to see how warmer and drier conditions can affect storage levels," Mr Walsh said.

"August rainfall was 30 per cent below the long-term average. As a result of the warmer and drier weather, the rate of increase in storages reduced markedly towards the end of August."

Mr Walsh said inflows to Thomson Reservoir, Melbourne's drought reserve, would continue to be the most important driver for further storage recovery.

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