OPPOSITION and The Nationals WA leader Shane Love says if they get into power they will have to bring forward any plans to increase the supply of water in Bullsbrook due to the lack of water infrastructure in the area.

Mr Love said there are a lot of people who were not on scheme water and rely on occasionally getting a load of water trucked to them to supplement their own water tanks.

“Now the government, shires and cities have enabled this to go on for years so that they approve subdivisions and developments where there is no scheme water,’’ he said.

He said usually about this time of the year people with tanks find they have to supplement that water because they have a garden for example and the tanks are not sufficient to last through.

What has probably made the problem worse now in Bullsbrook is that the water carters, who have been collecting water from the Bullsbrook scheme system have been advised by the Water Corporation to collect water from North Ellenbrook to stop the pressure on the Bullsbrook scheme system because of the development at Bullsbrook of many new houses and lots which are connected to the scheme.

“We’ve had a letter from the minister’s office which says that they’re expecting to have improvements…but that's not until 2028 so that’s years away and yet we’ve seen more and more development there so there simply isn’t sufficient water in Bullsbrook to cope with the developments which are going on there.’’

He said other information from the minister’s chief of staff said the water standpipes in use were capable of 100 litres a minute or 250 litres per minute depending which size mobile standpipe they have.

“What that means is that it adds half an hour for the time it takes (some carters) to fill a truck on what they could do if they were using the setup in Bullsbrook itself so that means people are way behind on waiting times for the delivery of water and could have a 10 or 12-week wait now for water to be delivered.’’

Mr Love questioned where the water was going to come from to supply all the new people coming into the area and said the new infrastructure should already be there.

While arguing The Nationals WA would want to bring forward any plans to increase the supply of water in Bullsbrook much more quickly than 2028 he didn’t think they could go as far as stopping development until the water situation was fixed, which he said people had called for.

“I’m not sure that we could do that if people have already bought land and want to build a house.

“(But) I think this has to be expedited and deliver sufficient water not only for the current needs of Bullsbrook but what will become the need in the next 10 years or so as well.

“Further to that I think the development of new subdivisions of those acreage lots that don’t have connection to the scheme water there needs to be provision made for there to be supplementary water sufficient in the area to be able to keep those people going in the future.

“That’s not a core job of the Water Corp but it’s a core job of government if it’s approving these subdivisions.’’

The Water Corporation has been contacted for comment.