Water Resources Minister Ernie Bridge is concerned there may be misunderstanding in the community about the aims of the Kimberley Pipeline study commissioned by the State Government earlier this year.
The independent study will involve a detailed analysis of all water resources to determine best options for meeting Statewide water needs into the 21st century.
"On that basis, the Kimberley Pipeline Management and Advisory Board, set up to oversee the independent study, was briefed on its second and third meetings by both the Water Authority of Western Australia and the Mines Department about the State's water resources," he said.
"Another major element of the study is to investigate and identify the potential benefits to the State from the proposed pipeline in terms of economic development, decentralisation, employment, the environment and other factors."
Mr Bridge said the study would provide a comprehensive analysis of all of these factors and was not looking at the pipeline proposal as simply a water supply for Perth.
The Minister said the State Liberal Party was foolish to suggest that $3 million was an unacceptable price to pay for such a comprehensive bank of information.
"Finding the way to a full utilisation of the State's water resources would unlock multi-billion dollar benefits to Western Australia," he said.
"The Liberal Party is extremely short-sighted and has turned its back on people in rural and outback areas across WA by advocating the $3 million be added to existing expenditure on analysis of resources in the relatively well-populated and well-serviced South-West coastal strip."
Mr Bridge said he denied absolutely that information on available water resources had been withheld, or debate had been stifled on underground water resources on the coastal plain.
With regard to recent media reports, information on the water resource in the South-West, known as the Donnybrook Sunklands, had been publicly documented since the 1970s and was already built into Water Authority calculations and long-term planning.
Mr Bridge said it was unfortunate that confusion had arisen over the resource. In part, this was because a variety of names had been used to describe the same body of underground water. The list of names include Donnybrook Sunklands, part of the Yarragadee formation, the Southern Perth Basin, South-West groundwater, and Blackwood Plateau.
"What the Water Authority calls the Donnybrook Sunklands, the Mines Department calls part of the Yarragadee formation. Either way, the sustainable yield of 200 million cubic metres per year was included in Water Authority calculations as far back as 1988."
