Rainfall and Dam Level Update
16 May 2003
Rainfall across the Sydney region in recent days is beginning to have an impact on dam levels.
As of today, the Sydney Catchment Authority's (SCA) storages were up almost two per cent from last Friday to 59 per cent of total capacity.
The rain has had most impact on coastal dams such as Woronora, which supplies water to the Sutherland Shire in Sydney's south and northern suburbs of Wollongong. Woronora Dam rose from 80.4 to 91.6 per cent over the week.
Although there was no change at Warragamba Dam from last week, which is still at 58.1 per cent full, moderate rainfall in the last 24 hours over the dam's 9 000 square kilometre catchment is increasing inflows into the dam and may cause levels to rise. The Bureau of Meteorology predicts moderate rain to continue to fall over this catchment for the next 24 hours, easing Saturday afternoon.
Warragamba Dam supplies around 80 per cent of Sydney's water supply.
"We need 100 millimetres per day over two days across the entire Warragamba catchment to fill Warragamba Dam," CEO Graeme Head said.
"The heavy rainfalls are still largely confined to the coast and while the levels of dams there are rising, the impact on the Warragamba catchments as a whole has not been as significant. We need our whole storage to be at least 75 per cent full before voluntary restrictions can be lifted.
"It is important that people continue to conserve water and observe the voluntary water restrictions that apply for residents of Sydney, Blue Mountains and the Illawarra," Mr Head concluded.
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