Sustainability Report 2006/07Coping with drought
Water consumers continued to respond well to the need to conserve water during this extreme drought period, using on average about 303 litres per capita per day, levels not seen since 1945/6 when the figure was around 300 litres. Per capita water use is calculated using the water consumed in all households and industry, divided by the city’s population.
In January 2007, the Victorian Government announced that a range of drought contingency measures would be implemented to boost water supply by 40,000 million litres over the next two years. These measures include:
- Operational savings from changes in managing releases from Thomson Reservoir
- Reintroducing Swingler Weir, which enables us to divert water to the Upper Yarra Reservoir at times of low flow into the Thomson Reservoir
- Changes to pumping at Yering Gorge to improve efficiency of pumping from the Yarra during low flows while still meeting environmental flow requirements
- Increased harvesting of Yarra tributaries to capture water during storm events
- Increased resourcing to fix leaks from aqueducts.
Other drought contingency measures introduced in 2006/07 include:
- Delaying the new environmental flow regime for the Yarra River until Melbourne is back to Stage 1 restrictions or better (see Waterways)
- Making recycled water available to VicRoads, the City of Wyndham and smaller customers via standpipes at the Western Treatment Plant (see Recycled water)
- Negotiating with the Department of Sustainability and Environment to log timber only in the Starvation Creek catchment over summer 2006/07 because it is the lowest yielding Yarra tributary
Throughout 2006/07, Melbourne’s water authorities met regularly to review strategies in the light of prevailing conditions.
Melbourne Water worked with the retail water businesses, Western Water and the Department of Sustainability and Environment on drought management activities through the Drought Coordination Committee. The committee was established under the Drought Response Plan for the metropolitan area and is led by the retail water businesses, which are responsible for implementing water restrictions under the plan. Melbourne Water supports the committee by monitoring rainfall conditions across the catchments, storage levels and examining possible storage scenarios based on rainfall and streamflow data.
The Drought Response Plan for Licensed Water Diverters was also reviewed and released for public consultation and the Melbourne Water Supply System Extreme Drought Contingency Plan was developed to outline the actions necessary to manage the water supply system at minimum operating levels.
