Perth Water Supply

Perth Water Supply

Perth has a Mediterranean-style climate, which means that for most of the months in a year, Perth is continually experience a drying climate. We no longer depend on the rain to satisfy WA’s water needs. In this report, I would like to introduce where Perth’s water comes from. The current water sources include forty three percent of water from Groundwater, thirty three percentage of water from Desalination and eighteen percent from Dams.

Forty three percent of water is sourced from groundwater in Perth. Groundwater is made up from rain which percolates down through the rocks and soils and into aquifers. Aquifers are construct by sand, sandstone and limestone. There are three layers of aquifers in Perth:

• Superficial aquifer is the shallowest aquifer which often express themselves as wetlands or lakes.

• Confined Leederville aquifer is below the superficial aquifer, and is divided by confining layers which minimises water movement. Some of the areas it connects with the surface.

• Confined Yarragadee aquifer which is the oldest aquifer and it provides a strong supply even in dry years because of its measureless storage and little connection to the surface environment.

Thirty nine percent of Perth’s water is supplied by desalination. One third of Perth’s water is supplied by Perth Seawater Desalination Plant and Binningup Desalination Plant. Desalination is a sustainable and secure water source {because it doesn’t depend on the rainfall.}

Dam is a traditional water supply source. However, Perth can no longer rely on dams {because of drying climate}. Perth’s water supply mainly comes from the following eleven dams and Serpentine Dam having the largest capacity:

• Canning

• Churchman Brook

• Mundaring

• North Dandalup

• Samson Brook

• Serpentine

• Pipehead

• South Dandalup

• Stirling

• Victoria

• Wungong

In conclusion, because of less rainfall in Perth so Perth’s water supply cannot only rely on rain. Perth’s water supply...