Melbourne dams suffer driest decade

By PETER KER
January 13, 2010 MELBOURNE’S dams collected more water than the city needed in 2009, but it was a rare triumph for the old system at the end of a dire decade. Data released yesterday showed the decade between 2000 and 2009 was easily the driest on record for inflows to the city’s major dams. Dams collected about 20 per cent less water than the previous record dry decade – the 1980s – meaning that two of Melbourne’s three driest decades over the past century have occurred in the past 30 years. Melbourne effectively overdrew its dams during the past decade, with the 3911 billion litres of inflows unable to keep up with 4307 billion litres consumed. The decade also resulted in dam levels hitting a new record low, when storages fell to just 25.6 per cent of capacity in June 2009. In November 2000 they were as high as 63 per cent full, but now sit just above 37 per cent of capacity. … Melbourne Water managing director Rob Skinner stressed that even though 2009 was close to an average year in the context of the past decade, the results were far below long-term average inflows. Mr Skinner said reductions in rainfall typically led to exponentially larger reductions in dam inflows, as catchments needed to be wetted before yielding run-off into dams. … “It would be crazy to invest in new dams when our existing storages are at some of the lowest points they’ve ever been.” …

City dams suffer driest decade