‘We have contingency water plan’

JOHOR BARU: The Johor government is prepared to obtain treated water from other sources should Singapore hike up the price under a possible bilateral review of the state’s sale of raw water to its southern neighbour.

State Public Works, Rural and Regional Development Committee chairman Datuk Hasni Mohamad foresees that if both countries agree to the price increase for raw water Johor sells to Singapore, the island republic would in turn want to raise the price of treated water it supplies to Johor.

He said that on the assumption that both countries agree to review the price of raw water from the current three sen per 1,000 gallons to the proposed 45 sen, Singapore would also increase the price of the five million gallons of treated water it sells back to Johor daily.

“If Singapore increases its treated water from the current 50 cents (RM1.29) per 1,000 gallons to, say, S$5 (RM12.88) per 1,000 gallons, it is not viable for us.

“At that rate, it will be cheaper to produce our own treated water,” he said when contacted here yesterday.

Hasni added that Johor sells 250 million gallons of raw water per day to the island republic under the water agreement and purchases 2% of treated water from Singapore to supply to parts of Johor Baru and Kota Tinggi.

“I think we can be independent of Singapore for treated water and the state government is fully ready with a contingency plan to switch to other sources for treated water other than getting it from across the Causeway,” he said.

Hasni said the state could depend on plants in Kota Tinggi like Tai Hong and Sungai Johor for treated water in place of the supply from Singapore.

He added that the Federal Govern­ment had been made aware of Johor’s readiness to be self-­sufficient.

“But this is still premature to assume and it still depends on the willingness of both governments to agree to a suitable rate,” Hasni said.

“But Johor deserves to increase the price of raw water after selling it at the current three sen for the past 53 years.”