Perspective
Let me put the Brisbane floods in perspective with the drought in Perth.
Wivenhoe Dam is releasing 35 megalitres of water per second. This is a figure quoted by colleagues of my brother who work for SEQ Water.
Meanwhile, in Perth, we use around 1GL per day, in summer (link). So, in one minute, Wivenhoe Dam is spilling more than we use in a whole day in Perth.
Wivenhoe has been spilling 490GL of water a day. That is more than the entire annual water consumption of Perth, in a single day. It is eyewatering to even think about that.
Another informative graph is the dam level graph for Perth over the past 10 years. We are as fucked now as we were in 2007, but the dam levels have been going down since the winter of 2009, and we've got 2 desalination plants on-stream now.
Compare it to Wivenhoe, which is at very, very real risk of topping over. The releases have been scaled back in a devilish calculation aimed at bringing the dam as close to topping over as possible via holding water back so it won't make the flood get any worse than 5.5m. At 190% of capacity, there's now no options if the calculations were wrong.
Here in Perth, we face other devilish choices, but ones aimed at the heart of our unsustainable and irresponsible lifestyle. We've seen sprinkler use trimmed heavily, first in winter and now in summer, and if we get another dry winter, we'll finaly wake up to the fact we are going to have to have permanent sprinkler bans in summer and winter, etc.
We've done well, you've got to admit. The average Hamunaptran uses 280L of water a day, some 16L less than in 2004/05. The current advertising comaign exhorting us to use 60L less a day is a bit outlandish considering we haven't even cut a third of that in 6 years. But I guess the crunch time is coming.
Wivenhoe Dam is releasing 35 megalitres of water per second. This is a figure quoted by colleagues of my brother who work for SEQ Water.
Meanwhile, in Perth, we use around 1GL per day, in summer (link). So, in one minute, Wivenhoe Dam is spilling more than we use in a whole day in Perth.
Wivenhoe has been spilling 490GL of water a day. That is more than the entire annual water consumption of Perth, in a single day. It is eyewatering to even think about that.
Another informative graph is the dam level graph for Perth over the past 10 years. We are as fucked now as we were in 2007, but the dam levels have been going down since the winter of 2009, and we've got 2 desalination plants on-stream now.
Compare it to Wivenhoe, which is at very, very real risk of topping over. The releases have been scaled back in a devilish calculation aimed at bringing the dam as close to topping over as possible via holding water back so it won't make the flood get any worse than 5.5m. At 190% of capacity, there's now no options if the calculations were wrong.
Here in Perth, we face other devilish choices, but ones aimed at the heart of our unsustainable and irresponsible lifestyle. We've seen sprinkler use trimmed heavily, first in winter and now in summer, and if we get another dry winter, we'll finaly wake up to the fact we are going to have to have permanent sprinkler bans in summer and winter, etc.
We've done well, you've got to admit. The average Hamunaptran uses 280L of water a day, some 16L less than in 2004/05. The current advertising comaign exhorting us to use 60L less a day is a bit outlandish considering we haven't even cut a third of that in 6 years. But I guess the crunch time is coming.