Peter Coyne, who runs a small Perth-based outfit Agritech, believes if the billions of cubic metres of saline water lying beneath Western Australia's wheatfields could be extracted and brought to the edge of the escarpment, "then we'd have two of the major ingredients for hydro-electric power," he said.

After two years of engineering work, Mr Coyne's elaborate scheme involves a network of canals to drain saline water from an area known as the Upper Blackwood catchment. The water would be directed to the town of Duranillin where it would join a "transfer canal" and flow 200km into a dam at the top of the Darling Scarp near Collie.

The water would then flow down the 200m high escarpment and drive a privately run 20-megawatt power station at the bottom. The salty water would finally be discharged into the ocean 20km away near Bunbury.

Coyne claims he can reduce salination by 70 per cent within two to five years, and if the canals are extended, the scheme could eradicate salinity completely from "all the land as well as the rivers and lakes."

At the moment, Mr Coyne wants access to the $4 million pledged by the state government before the last election for assessing engineering solutions to combat salinity.