Surging demand for desalination and water purification plants has blown out waiting lists for key items such as high-pressure membranes, pumps and housings.

The first major recycling project to come on line since the drought hit – Brisbane City Council’s Wynnum sewage treatment plant upgrade – is facing delays because of the problem.

Components for a much more ambitious State Government upgrade of Luggage Point treatment plant could take even longer to deliver, industry experts said yesterday.

Wynnum will provide up to eight million litres a day of high-quality water for industrial users such as the Caltex oil refinery.

“We have been told there is a nine-month delay getting these membranes,” Lord Mayor Campbell Newman’s water spokeswoman Jane Prentice said.

She said the council had been asking industry for years to take recycled wastewater but there had been little interest until it ended special rates deals and threatened to cap usage.

The State Government has in turn accused BCC of dithering despite having no infrastructure in place to save water. Several importers of high-pressure membranes and pumps said demand from developing countries was so strong there were already long production delays.

“There are only a handful of reputable companies around the world making them,” Aquatec-Maxcon managing director Greg Johnston said.