ON August 20, the issue of the water pressure dropouts and lower than standard water pressure in Wooroloo and Chidlow was once again brought to parliament.

Western Australia MLC Anthony Spagnolo whose office is in Guildford brought residents’ concerns to the floor to seek clarity on the water service connections in Wooroloo.

Mr Spagnolo asked how many properties were now connected to the Wooroloo water scheme and how many are connected under a non-standard water service agreement (NSWSA).

He was told by the Leader of the House Stephen Dawson that a total of 303 properties are connected in Wooroloo, of which 66 are connected under a non-standard water service agreement.

As reported in Water Corp to cover Chidlow water supply fixes NSWSAs meant for a variety of reasons some customers cannot be supplied with water at the pressure that is required or may have water quality issues or other substandard components to the water supply according to Water Minister Don Punch.

Mr Punch said while Wooroloo and Chidlow were experiencing similar issues with water pressure, they had different causes and meant Water Corporation had different obligations.

He said while Chidlow drew off the Mundaring-Kalgoorlie pipeline, Wooroloo had never been connected to the town water supply system and was not part of the regulated water supply for that area.

NSWSAs were also at the heart of some resident concerns about their push for a long term fix as they said the agreement effectively abrogated Water Corporation of responsibility for the standards of the service being supplied as reported in Chidlow water parliamentary e-petition.

Mr Spagnolo also asked of the properties with an NSWSA, how many had the agreement in place at the time of initial connection and how many were applied after the initial connection.

“Four properties had an NSWSA in place at the time of connection and 62 were connected prior to the NSWSA being issued,” Mr Dawson said.

Mr Spagnolo then asked since January 1, 2020, how many additional NSWSAs have been issued, and, of those, how many were for properties with an existing connection and how many were for properties with no prior connection.

He was told that since January 1, 2020, an additional 16 properties within Wooroloo were issued with an NSWSA for the first time.

“Of these, 15 properties already had an existing connection, and one property was connected after the NSWSA was issued,” Mr Dawson said.