Australian city's water storage hits 5-year low as El Nino bites

Water-storage catchments in the Australian city of Melbourne have hit a five-year low, despite higher than average rainfall this week.

After a hot, dry summer and autumn, Victoria's dams dropped below 60 percent capacity on Friday for the first time in half a decade.

Twelve months ago, on May 6 2015, the state's catchments were 69.4 percent full, meaning they have dropped almost 10 percent -- or the equivalent of 176 billion liters -- in the space of one year.

The last time the Victorian capital's water levels were this low, Melbourne residents were placed on Stage 1 water restrictions -- which limits water use for activities such as garden watering and car washing -- to preserve the precious resource.

Water storage typically decline over summer and autumn. But this week, Melbourne Water's manager of supply Michelle Riley said the region's water loss had been compounded over the past 12 months by a pronounced trend of lower-than-average rainfall and streamflow.

But that could soon change. Late last week, Australia's Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) flagged that the 2015-16 El Nino -- extended hot and dry weather pattern -- was in its "last stages."

The group's El Nino-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) Wrap-Up said the majority of international climate models suggested water temperatures in the Pacific Ocean, which influence the onset of an El Nino, would return to normal by the end of May.

Modelling also suggested there was a 50 percent chance of a La Nina, marked by wetter and cooler weather, forming in late 2016.

Further south, the state of Tasmania is experiencing a water crisis of its own.

As well as the obvious need for clean drinking water, Tasmania derives much of its power from its Hydro-electric scheme dams.

On Monday, Tasmania's dam levels rose for the first time since last September to 13 percent.

The state government has put a contingency plan in place to use diesel generators if the dams run dry, with Tasmania's Bass Strait energy cable which flows from the Australian mainland still out of order.

Source: XINHUA