The hardest hit areas are:

• Kirup, where the dam is at just over 29 per cent capacity,

• Greenbushes, where one dam is at 11 per cent, and

• Hester, which is on 21 per cent.

Rainfall for Donnybrook so far this year has reached 388.7mm, just over half of the average level of 766.1mm, while rainfall for August this year is approximately one-third of the annual average.

Bridgetown has fared worse still, with a total of 279mm rainfall so far this year against an average rainfall to August of 626.7mm.

Water Corporation regional business manager Scott Moorhead said poor rainfall this winter had led to less inflow to dams.

“Most of the region’s inland towns are supplied by dams, while most of the coastal areas are supplied by groundwater,” Mr Moorhead said.“The lack of inflow during winter means that we won’t have much water stored to get us through the warmer months.”

On average, drinking water dams in the region were about 15 per cent lower than the same time last year, Mr Moorhead said.

“Tanjannerup Dam in Nannup is still very low at 31 per cent after reaching its lowest point on record a few weeks ago at 15 per cent,” he said.

“In Greenbushes, we are already pumping water into the local drinking water dams from privately-owned Mount Jones Dam to top up storage as much as we can.”

Kirup Dam was also very low and the Water Corporation would soon need to start transferring water from the Mullalyup soaks to boost supply, unless the area received significant rain in the next week.

“Supply to Bridgetown, Boyup Brook and Hester will be secure due to supplementation from our bore near Nannup which was commissioned last year,” he said.

“We are working to complete the Bridge-town Regional Water Supply Scheme as quickly as possible so that Greenbushes, Balingup, Kirup and Mullalyup also have a secure drinking water supply.”

Mr Moorhead said it was important that local residents start saving as much water as they could now, to make sure there was enough water to get through summer. “There are heaps of ways to save water, and even small savings make a big difference when multiplied by the number of people connected to scheme water,” he said. “We are asking people to save the equivalent of six buckets of water a day. It’s surprising how easily this can be done, especially if there are three or four in the house.”