Construction of Queensland’s Wyaralong Water Treatment Plant has ground to a halt as the State Government released its new south east Queensland bulk water pricing path.

The Queensland Government has announced new bulk water prices for south east Queensland (SEQ) to apply from the beginning of July, outling an increase of less than a dollar a week for average households using less than 200 kilolitres of water per year.

State Water Supply Minister, Mark McArdle, said that the average increase in water costs for SEQ customers would be around $49 over the 2013-14 period.

“Bulk water revenue pays for dams, treatment plants and the Gold Coast Desalination Plant which provides critical water supply in emergencies,” Mr McArdle said.

Mr McArdle said it was crucial that Seqwater did not return profit, and that no returns were provided to the State.

“These new prices mean that bulk water will continue to be sold at a loss of more than $150 million this year” Mr McArdle said.

Mr McArdle said that in order to keep the price path at $49, the State Government had to stop construction on the treatment plan.

Mr McArdle said the same increase would apply to the 2014–15 financial year except for Somerset, which would have a lower increase as it would have reached the final SEQ-wide bulk water price path. All council areas will reach this final price by 2017–18.