The need to ramp up Adelaide\u2019s desalination plant or enforce water restrictions in the looming dry, hot summer has been \u201cruled out\u201d by surprising rainfalls that have South Australia\u2019s reservoirs at their highest winter level in 20 years.<\/p>\n
The state\u2019s biggest reservoir, Mount Bold near Kangarilla in the Adelaide Hills, is at 95 per cent capacity \u2013 up from 55 per cent at the same time last year. <\/p>\n
South Para reservoir, near Williamstown north-east of Adelaide, is at 76 per cent this week compared to 45 per cent last year.<\/p>\n
And Myponga on the Fleurieu Peninsula is at 87 per cent \u2013 a huge jump from last year\u2019s 59 per cent. In just 24 hours to 8am on Tuesday, Myponga captured a whopping 2.3 billion litres.<\/p>\n
Overall, the combined total for the state\u2019s reservoirs is 85 per cent, up from 55 per cent at the same time last year. The last time it was at 85 per cent was in the spring of 2023. It has been 20 years since winter levels reached that peak.<\/p>\n
The figures are a \u201cvery good surprise\u201d, according to SA Water\u2019s senior manager of water futures and security Ashley Kingsborough.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019d been anticipating a dry end to winter flowing through into a dry spring period. It rules out any potential need for water restrictions or to even contemplate restrictions for the summer ahead,\u201d Dr Kingsborough said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re very pleasantly surprised by the additional water coming into the reservoirs … it\u2019s good news. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve obviously been quite concerned with the forecasts of El Ni\u00f1o coming, and we still anticipate higher levels of water demand in the summer ahead when it does turn. But with this much water in storage … there\u2019s absolutely no need for water restrictions in Adelaide in the summer ahead, we\u2019ve got multiple years of resilience built in before we need to contemplate anything like that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Adelaide\u2019s 10 reservoirs, spread across the Western Mount Lofty Ranges, have collected 100 billion litres of water this winter \u2013 the biggest volume in the past 20 years. In just 24 hours to 8am on Wednesday, more than 7.5 billion litres had gushed into the reservoirs.<\/p>\n
Dr Kingsborough said the levels would continue to \u201cedge upwards\u201d over the next few days as water flowed into reservoirs.<\/p>\n
He said the desal plant would be run in maintenance mode over summer, producing about 5.3 billion litres in the 2026\/27 season \u2013 about five per cent of total water demand.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf something really does go wrong, we can turn it up,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are always wanting to encourage customers to be as efficient with their water use as possible because it is a finite resource and it\u2019s not something that we want people to be just frivolous with. But we\u2019re feeling very, very comfortable for the summer ahead.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The need to ramp up Adelaide\u2019s desalination plant or enforce water restrictions in the looming dry, hot summer…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":80240,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[125140,125148,125147,125138,125155,125151,125115,41460,61339,125120,20573,38039,40777,50604,55107,87048,46779,125126,125133,125124,125131,125159,125158,125117,125132,80394,395,125129,125149,125111,36917,78721,38383,125118,125135,125110,9946,87125,110264,125122,125119,38447,66292,125127,125157,125106,125160,125108,62770,125130,7350,125144,4385,77407,2806,55635,125142,121,125107,83375,14156,125113,125153,125134,125137,84317,125154,53179,125125,125150,125161,125109,125156,44601,59156,125112,38444,125141,42543,125152,125121,45688,51302,37964,76092,125162,125139,125145,125116,38964,119287,125123,36985,68413,38738,13160,125143,125136,125114,22441,125146,7601,125128],"class_list":["post-80239","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-adelaide","tag-s-10-reservoirs","tag-s-59","tag-s-biggest-reservoir","tag-s-desalination-plant","tag-s-recent-rain-bomb","tag-s-reservoirs","tag-s-senior-manager","tag-41460","tag-61339","tag-100-billion-litres","tag-20-years","tag-38039","tag-40777","tag-50604","tag-55107","tag-87048","tag-8am","tag-a-very-good-surprise","tag-a-dry-end","tag-a-dry-spring-period","tag-a-finite-resource","tag-a-huge-jump","tag-a-whopping-2-3-billion-litres-overall","tag-aa-sa-reservoir-levels","tag-about-5-3-billion-litres","tag-about-five","tag-adelaide","tag-an-unexpected-aftermath","tag-any-potential-need","tag-biggest-rainfall","tag-cent","tag-cent-capacity","tag-customers","tag-dr-kingsborough","tag-edge-upwards","tag-el-nino-coming","tag-good-news","tag-higher-levels","tag-hot-summer","tag-just-24-hours","tag-kangarilla","tag-last-year","tag-last-year-and","tag-maintenance-mode","tag-more-than-7-5-billion-litres","tag-mount-bold","tag-multiple-years","tag-myponga","tag-no-need","tag-peak-the-figures","tag-people","tag-reservoirs-he","tag-resilience","tag-restrictions","tag-sa","tag-sa-water","tag-security-ashley-kingsborough","tag-south-australia","tag-south-para-reservoir","tag-storage","tag-summer","tag-summer-water-restrictions","tag-surprise-rainfall","tag-surprising-rainfalls","tag-tableadelaide","tag-the-2026-27-season","tag-the-additional-water","tag-the-adelaide-hills","tag-the-biggest-volume","tag-the-combined-total","tag-the-desal-plant","tag-the-fleurieu-peninsula","tag-the-forecasts","tag-the-last-time","tag-the-levels","tag-the-looming-dry","tag-the-need","tag-the-next-few-days","tag-the-past-20-years","tag-the-reservoirs","tag-the-reservoirs-dr-kingsborough","tag-the-same-time","tag-the-spring","tag-the-state","tag-the-summer","tag-the-western-mount-lofty-ranges","tag-their-highest-winter-level","tag-their-water-use","tag-this-much-water","tag-this-week","tag-this-winter","tag-total-water-demand","tag-tuesday","tag-turn","tag-two-decades","tag-water","tag-water-demand","tag-water-futures","tag-water-restrictions","tag-wednesday","tag-williamstown-north-east","tag-winter","tag-winter-levels"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80239","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=80239"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80239\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/80240"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80239"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}