Water use & desalination
Recent water use
Melbourne Water’s published weekly per-person measure.
18 litres lower than the previous week (150).
Four reported weeks ending 5 Nov 2026. Average of the rounded weekly figures.
This is a citywide indicator per person, not per customer account. The weekly feed has no residential/business split; the annual charts below use separately reported retailer totals.
Source: Melbourne WaterChecked 7 Nov 2026, 2:17 pm AEDT · daily checks at 6pm Melbourne time
Annual change over 7 years2017–18 to 2024–25 · financial years
399.7 → 434.2 GL/year
222.1 → 221.2 L/person/day
4.93 → 5.38 million people
Custom aggregation of metropolitan retailers; population estimates were revised during the period. Annual data checked 7 November 2026.
Annual water use
Residential + business customer use, excluding recycled water and network losses. Financial years: 1 July–30 June.
Earlier records back to 2005–06 are available above, with a separate reporting basis.
Total customer useGigalitres per financial year · zero baseline
Use per residentLitres per person per day · includes business use
In this series, total customer use grew by 8.6% while use per resident ended 0.4% lower. These endpoints describe the data; they do not isolate the effects of weather, population or water-saving behaviour.
Why the dotted line at 2021–22? Reported population estimates changed around the Census 2021 update, and Greater Western Water was formed. Earlier years include both its predecessor utilities to reduce the boundary break. The estimates are not a fully harmonised population series; changes in the denominator affect per-person results.
What is business use? “Business & other” is the source’s non-residential category; it also includes public services and other non-household uses. It has no industry breakdown, including for data centres. Residential and non-residential use together make up total customer use.
Source: Bureau of Meteorology National Performance Reports. Per-person values = customer litres ÷ reported service population ÷ days in the financial year. The all-use line allocates business use across residents; the Residential only option uses residential volume alone. These custom retailer aggregates have different coverage and methods from Melbourne Water’s weekly indicator and published Target 150 figures. Full definitions and coverage.
Desalinated water
Actual water sourced or supplied in each financial year (1 July–30 June).
Percentage denominator: Melbourne Water’s total annual bulk water supply, using the same financial year. This gives the scale of desalination relative to the water supply system; it is not the share consumed at taps. It uses a broader supply measure than the customer-use charts above.
* The striped 2025–26 bar uses Melbourne Water’s reported supply of 58.3 GL. Earlier years use the Bureau’s net desalinated water sourced measure (W3.1), based on treated-water production. The latest percentage is approximately 11.6%, using 58.3 GL ÷ approximately 504 GL supplied. Both numerator and denominator change source for that year. Zero means a reported zero, not missing data.
Desalinated water can enter storage and be used later. This chart cannot tell us how much reached household taps in the same year. Sources: BOM NPR and Melbourne Water’s 2025–26 Water Quality Annual Report, page 5.