• Floating dam covers installed in Ravensthorpe, Salmon Gums and Lake King
• Evaporation halved during recent trial by university researchers
• Supports drinking water security in the face of declining rainfall
• $2.8 million project jointly funded by State and Commonwealth Governments

Innovative floating covers that reduce evaporation by more than 70 per cent have been installed at three dams in southern agricultural areas, in a further effort to secure drinking water supplies impacted by climate change.

The $2.8 million Water Corporation project saw hundreds of thousands of modular, hexagonal discs – known as a HexaCover – installed on dams in Ravensthorpe, Salmon Gums and Lake King.

Annual rainfall across the region has declined by around 20 per cent since the 1970s, with seasonal water carting needed in each community to secure drinking water in the face of increasingly unreliable rainfall.

Made from 100 per cent recycled plastic, the covers were shown to reduce evaporation by 73 per cent – saving more than 1.6 million litres of drinking water – during a recent trial involving University of Western Australia researchers at Wellstead, 90km east of Albany.