By extracting water from streams around the Island, swollen by the heavy rain, the utility company was able to pump about 45.8 million litres into its six water catchment reservoirs.
Chief executive Helier Smith says this amounted to an increase of one per cent in overall reservoir levels which stood at 71.7 per cent by the end of the weekend.
Jersey Water records rainfall at its sites every week which it shares with Jersey Met and the Met Office in the UK.
‘On Sunday we recorded an average of 28.9 mm of rainfall across our sites,’ he said. ‘This is more than 62 per cent of our five-year average for the whole month of September of 46 mm,’ Mr Smith said.
‘Sunday’s rainfall resulted in us collecting approximately 45.8 million litres of water into our reservoirs for the day. Allowing for the 19.5 million litres we supplied to our customers, this left us with a net gain on Sunday of 26.3m litres.
‘We have had a drier than normal summer up to the beginning of August so currently being 71.7 per cent full is a very good position to be in at this time of the year.’
Jersey Water started the year with the lowest overall reservoir levels since 2001 of 63.4 per cent, compared to 95 per cent on 1 January 2016.
This was due to an overall Island rainfall of 242 mm in the last four months of 2016 – 31 mm below the seasonal average.
Just 22.6 mm of rain fell last December making it the driest since 1905. Fortunately, there was sufficient rain over the spring to take total reservoir levels up to almost 99 per cent full by 1 April this year. The combined capacity of Jersey Water’s six reservoirs is 623.81 million litres
Mr Smith says water resources have also been boosted by trials taking place at the Island’s desalination plant at La Rosière, between La Moye and Corbière, which is nearing the end of a £6 million upgrade project. Built in 1970, it was last upgraded in 1999.
The desalination plant, which is located in a disused quarry, is a back-up for times of severe drought. It was last used in the autumn of 2011.
‘Our water resources are looking very normal and healthy for this time of the year,’ Mr Smith said. ‘We have not yet reached the point where rainfall levels go higher than consumption, [that is] when water coming into the reservoirs exceeds that going out to our customers. That usually comes in October or November with the start of the winter rains.’
