Johor: We'll stop buying

KUALA LUMPUR: Johor will no longer buy treated water from Singapore and spare the republic the subsidy it claims to have borne in the sale of water to the state. 

Based on Singapore’s claim that it costs RM2.40 to treat every 1,000 gallons, the subsidy borne by Singapore totalled RM21.1mil in 2000, RM23.9mil in 2001 and RM26.5mil in 2002. 

According to Singapore’s booklet entitled Water Talks? If Only It Could, the republic, by selling treated water to Johor at only 50 sen per 1,000 gallons, absorbs RM1.90 as subsidy. 

The booklet also claimed that by multiplying the total amount of treated water that Johor bought from Singapore, the subsidy added up to RM70,000 a day or RM25mil a year. 

Malaysia, in response, said Singapore’s subsidy on the treated water was hardly a king’s ransom. 

And according to the NEAC booklet entitled Water: The Singapore-Malaysia Dispute - The Facts, Johor had been paying much, much more every year for the modest amount of treated water it purchased from Singapore than the republic had been paying Johor for the ocean of raw water it received. 

Having raw water from Johor had in fact saved Singapore from forking out RM478.4mil in 2002, RM404.5mil and RM375.4mil for 2001 and 2000 respectively to produce NEWater. 

Malaysia’s annual subsidy to Singapore in 2000 was RM375.4mil, while Singapore’s annual “subsidy” to Malaysia was RM21.1mil for the same year. 

In 2001 and 2002, Malaysia’s subsidies were RM404.5mil and RM478.4mil respectively, while Singapore’s annual subsidies were RM23.9mil and RM26.5mil respectively. 

Malaysia’s nett subsidy to Singapore was RM354.3mil in 2000, RM380.6mil in 2001 and RM451.9mil in 2002. 

“If Singapore is subsidising Malaysia annually to the tune of RM25mil, Malaysia over the past three years alone subsidised Singapore to the tune of RM1.25bil (RM1,258.3 or S$572mil or US$333.1mil),” said the booklet. 

Singapore had further claimed that it spent more than S$1bil (RM2.2bil) in operational and maintenance costs, and on water infrastructure like dams, pipelines, plants and equipment. 

It also said RM320mil was paid upfront to Johor for the Linggiu Dam in 1990 as compensation for the loss of use of the land. 

It said this was the money which had gone into the Johor economy and benefited the residents there, and asked: “Would Singapore have invested so much in the project if it knew that Malaysia was going to up the price of water just 10 years down the road?” 

Malaysia’s reply to this was: “Singapore Government officials are very smart people. Did they expect the price of 1.4 Singapore cents per 1,000 gallons to last forever? 

“Would they have paid so much money without making sure that Singapore was receiving good value for money?” 

The NEAC booklet further said if Singapore had substituted the 468.7 billion gallons of water it bought from Johor at 3 sen per 1,000 gallons from 1997 to 2002 with NEWater, the republic’s water bill would have swelled by an additional RM2.37bil or S$1.08bil. 

“What this means is that from 1997 to 2002 Malaysia subsidised Singapore by a total of RM2.37bil or RM176.4mil more than the island republic’s claimed infrastructure expenditure of RM2.2bil or S$1bil in 1990,” it said. 

And this did not take into account the amount of land Malaysia had set aside in order to maintain a catchment area for the supply of raw water to Singapore, an area many times larger than the entire island of Singapore, it added.  

Related articlesProlonged water dispute will hurt Malaysia-S’pore tiesProspect of a merger in 1961 led to low pricingMalaysia' s stand on pricing consistentKL ‘using Singapore formula’Council puzzled over Singapore’s claimsJohor: We’ll stop buyingBackground to the Malaysia-Singapore water spatGive us a fair price, Singapore One Big Mac for 13-year supply 

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Official sites to download the booklet 

National Economic Action CouncilNEAC Special Consultancy Team on GlobalisationThe Information MinistryThe Ministry of Foreign Affairs 

Download from Star Online (Quick version)The water dispute booklet in pdf format (similar content but does not reflect the official print format)