On Monday (19 Aug), Malaysia’s Water, Land and Natural Resources Minister Xavier Jayakumar said he expects Johor to stop depending on Singapore for treated water come 2022.
According to The Sun Daily, Johor will need about 260 million litres a day. By 2022, the state should be able to produce that amount using its water treatment plants, said Mr Xavier.
Singapore is currently supplying about 16 million gallons of treated water per day to Johor.
Source
The water agreement talks between Singapore and Malaysia have been of much contention this year.
Malaysian Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad has argued many times against the current price at which Malaysia is supplying raw water to Singapore.
At present, and according to the 1962 Water Agreement, Singapore is entitled to buy raw water from Malaysia at 3 sen (S$0.01) per 1,000 gallons.
In Jan 2019, Johor’s water treatment plants were disrupted by pollution in a river catchment.
To help the state cope with the sudden drop in supply of treated water, Singapore agreed to provide Johor an extra 6 mgd for 3 days, bringing the total to 22 mgd.
This is probably why Mr Jayakumar also said that the ministry will be working more closely with the Johor government to tackle the problem of river pollution by managing the sewage waste better.
Given that Singapore actually absorbs 4/5 the cost of water treatment when selling treated water to Johor, maybe we’ll get to save some money.
Featured images adapted from The Star.
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