Water Minister Bill Marmion says a tough new inspection regime has seen the number of people fined for not complying with winter sprinkler bans increase dramatically.
Mr Marmion said 1,219 scheme water users had been issued a warning this winter, while 129 had been fined.
This time last year the Water Corporation issued 1,698 warnings, but only seven fines.
"Infringements are higher because the corporation, supported by the State Government, has taken a tougher stance with infringement notices and increased its patrols," Mr Marmion said.
Mr Marmion said research showed that most people supported a total winter sprinkler ban. Last year about 4.2 billion litres of water was saved during the three months of winter - or enough water to fill 1,870 Olympic-sized swimming pools.
"Everyone should be well aware by now of the consequences of the very dry 2010 winter, the very hot summer months and the prolonged spell of dry weather this year," he said.
"So far, there have been a couple of breaks in the dry weather but we are now half way through winter with only about five billion litres of inflow into our dams. Based on a ten year average, we would usually have 18.5 billion litres of inflow by this time of year.
"We need to keep up our good work in terms of saving water - and keeping the sprinklers turned off."
The sprinkler ban is in place in Perth, Mandurah and other parts of the south-west.
