Central Highlands Water released its official weekly storage figures yesterday, which showed the Ballarat system had fallen to 7.9 per cent.

The two main storages in the Ballarat system are the White Swan Reservoir and the Lal Lal Reservoir.

The White Swan is holding 946 megalitres, or 6.7 per cent, while the Lal Lal Reservoir contains 3820 megalitres, or 9.6 per cent.

At the laying of the final length of Goldfields Superpipe last week, CHW said it expected that without significant rainfall, storages would fall below 6.5 per cent before water started arriving via the superpipe - some time in June.

Last month, CHW chief executive officer Neil Brennan said work done in 2006 would allow the authority to get down to the last 500 megalitres, or 0.77 per cent capacity, and still access water.

CHW has asked the Ballarat community to limit daily water use to 150 litres per person, or 25 megalitres a day for the entire community.

So far this month the target has generally been met, but on warmer days it is exceeded. Ballarat has received just 3.4mm of rain and the average daily maximum temperature has been 19.1C.

The long term rainfall average for April is 52.3mm while the long term daily maximum is 17.6C.