I first saw the notice under the Table at this Water Corporation page on 26 August “rainfall instruments located at Victoria Dam and Mundaring Weir are being serviced and are not currently recording rainfall.” – there was no such notice on 1st August. I emailed the WA Minister for Water on 9 August Subject: “Audit required Perth dams rainfall”.
The Water Corporation notice has not changed in 2 months.
A Water Corporation staffer could have bought a couple of $10 rain gauges at Bunnings – plus a couple of star pickets and in the space of a few hours have functioning rain gauges again at the Mundaring & Victoria dam sites.
It simply beggars belief that in more than 60 days they still say the sites are “…being serviced and are not currently recording rainfall.”
Buy and install two $10 rain gauges from Bunnings? Admittedly that would give us rain data, but there is a lot more to think about here I’m sure Warwick.
For a start, what about competitive tendering? Big W might have them for $8.50 and then imagine the grilling the minister would get in Senate estimates for circumventing procurement guidelines.
Also, which Water Corporation maverick lone wolf contrarian would have the initiative to actually get off his backside and go and do it? And what if he scratched his thumb on a star picket while installing the gauges? Think of the compo claim!
Moreover, imagine this labour of Hercules were actually achieved and real existing rainfall readings were there for the taking. Do we really have the state of the art bias adjustments and homogenisation techniques to clean these data of all impurities and prevent misinterpretation?
No Warwick it would simply be irresponsible to go out and get raw data. Besides, we already know the answer without the data – global warming is turning southwest WA into an uninhabitable desert. It cost millions in climate modelling to prove that. Why risk confusion by spending $20 on facts?
Thanks for those gems Dave!
Still the same message after more than 70 days:
“Please note the rainfall instruments located at Victoria Dam and Mundaring Weir are being serviced and are not currently recording rainfall. We are working to address this and resume measurement as soon as possible.”
“As soon as possible”! A couple of years ago a bloke called Steve Quirk managed to walk the 2000 miles across Australia from Wollongong to Fremantle in 67 days. A pity the gauges weren’t busted then – he could have bought a couple of replacements in Dapto at east coast prices, brought them across the continent with him and installed them, and still had a few days to spare compared to the Water Corp.
BTW have you noticed the new ballsup at their dams rainfall page? Now that November has arrived, they give figures for average January-November rainfall that exceed the average for the whole year at Canning Dam and Serpentine Pipehead. Another little problem for them to iron out “as soon as possible”, unless of course rainfall is usually negative in those places in December…
“Please note the rainfall instruments located at Victoria Dam and Mundaring Weir are being serviced and are not currently recording rainfall. We are working to address this and resume measurement as soon as possible.”
Same message still at the same page. Four and a half months and counting. Pathetic.