A NEW recycling plant to turn treated sewage into drinking water will be built for $262 million after the State Government moved to shore up Perth’s scheme supplies.

Water Minister Dave Kelly will today announce that the State Government has selected a joint venture between local engineering firm Clough and French waste management giant Suez to build the second stage of a wastewater recycling plant in Perth’s northern suburbs.

The expansion, which comes just weeks after the first stage began operating, will involve doubling the capacity of the existing plant at Beenyup from 14 billion litres a year to 28 billion litres.

A 13km pipeline will be built from the plant to recharge sites at Wanneroo and Neerabup. Construction will start this month and finish within two years.

Mr Kelly said the development would create 170 jobs and play a vital role in buttressing Perth’s drinking water supplies from a drying climate.

Despite receiving about 80 billion litres of water run-off so far this year, up significantly compared with recent years, Perth’s dams are only 45 per cent full.

Under the recycling scheme, treated sewage from the Beenyup wastewater treatment plant will be processed before being pumped into the Gnangara aquifer system.

The water is left in the ground to undergo natural treatment before being used to boost the Water Corp’s yearly groundwater take, which is about half Perth’s drinking supplies.

Mr Kelly hailed the local content implications of the expansion contract at a time when the WA economy was crying out for the jobs boost.

He said the expanded plant would have the capacity to supply 100,000 homes a year with water.

“Through this contract about 170 local workers will be employed, with 90 per cent of work to be sub-contracted or supplied by West Australian businesses,” Mr Kelly said.

“The south-west of our State continues to be impacted by climate change and groundwater replenishment is a key project in the Water Corporation’s plans to secure water supplies in response to the drying climate.”