Preventing reservoir evaporation during droughts with floating balls may not help conserve water overall due to the water needed to make the balls.

A study published in Nature Sustainability says that producing the balls probably used more water elsewhere than was saved during their deployment.

Black shade balls being deployed on a Los Angeles reservoir. Credit: Imperial College LondonAmid California's latest drought, which lasted from 2011-2017, 96 million "shade balls" were floated on a Los Angeles reservoir. The black plastic balls covered the water surface in an effort to prevent evaporation for one and half years during the latter part of the drought. For each drop of water saved by the balls, however, the study's authors estimate that more than one drop would have been used in another part of the supply chain.

Study co-author Dr Kaveh Madani, from the Centre for Environmental Policy at Imperial College London, said, "We are very good at quick technological fixes, but we often overlook the long-term and secondary impacts of our solutions."

The shade balls are made of a kind of plastic that requires oil, natural gas, and electricity to produce, all of which require large quantities of water, the authors say. Producing 96 million balls of standard 5mm thickness would use up to an estimated 2.9 million cubic meters of water. During their time on the reservoir, the balls are estimated to have saved 1.7 million cubic meters of water.

The study team from Imperial, M.I.T. and the University of Twente predict the balls would have to be deployed for two and half years before the water they saved matched the water they used.

However, this is only if they were preventing evaporation at the same rate even outside the dry period; when not in drought conditions, the balls are expected to be less efficient at preventing evaporation, meaning they would have to be deployed for longer to save as much water as they used.

This is alongside other potentially negative effects on the water, such as affecting life in the reservoir or promoting bacterial growth. In addition, the balls' production could have negative effects on the environment associated with water pollution or carbon emissions.

"We are not suggesting that shade balls are bad and must not be used," Madani said. "We are just highlighting the fact that the environmental cost of shade balls must be considered together with their benefits."