Perth, the capital city of Western Australia has suffered the effects of a drying climate since the mid-1970s. Before the 1970s Perth’s reservoirs received an average of 420 billion litres of water from inflowing streams each year – more than enough for the needs of Perth’s two million people. However, in recent times inflow to the reservoirs fell to an average of about 72.5 billion litres of water, driving the need for more expensive, climate-independent sources such as seawater desalination. Perth receives most of its rain in winter and spring, but the break of season is now later in the year, and winter rainfall often begins with torrential, short-lived rainstorms that cause flooding like this one on 5 June , videoed in Booragoon to the south of the Perth CBD.