BUTTERWORTH: The days of enjoying the cheapest water in the country might be over for Penang households starting next year.
At just 22sen per 1,000 litres for the first 20,000 litres monthly, Penang home users pay a mere 0.00022sen per litre unless they exceed the base quota.
No other state in the country charges this low, but it is likely to change next year because the state government plans to propose new domestic tariffs to the National Water Services Commission next year.
Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow said the state administration would submit an application to the Federal Government to increase the water tariff for Penang households.
“The state needs to impose a new water tariff as other states have begun to do it,” he said after launching the state’s Affordable Housing and Real Estate Expo 2023 at Butterworth Arena here yesterday.
Chow said Penang currently imposed the same tariff rates for home users since 2015 and introduced new tariffs for commercial users last year.
He said a water management business plan must be submitted to federal authorities every three years on the estimated tariff rates that would be implemented.
Chow stressed that Penang’s water supply was heavily subsidised.
While cheap, data shows that Penangites seem to take treated water for granted because domestic users in Penang are among the heaviest users of treated water in the country.
The 2021 per capita (average-per-person) domestic water usage of Penangites was 305 litres-per-person-per-day.
That amounts to a little over 100 typical pails of water per person each day in every house in Penang for cooking, washing, gardening, et cetera.
“Penang Water Supply Corporation spends over RM1 to treat every 1,000 litres of water but only sells them at around 30sen per litre (this average price factors in commercial, industrial and other tariff rates),” he said.
He said the state government spent more than RM100mil per year subsidising treated water for Penangites.
On the water disruptions that were caused by a ruptured pipe under Prai River on Dec 18, Chow said consumers in several parts of the southwest district of Penang island such as in Balik Pulau still needed water tankers as of yesterday.
He expected the state-wide water supply to be back to normal soon, but pointed out that the state must spend RM5mil to replace that ruptured under-river water pipe that runs across Prai River and supplies water treated from Muda River in the north to much of the island.
The pipe, laid along the bottom of Prai River in 1996, ruptured six days ago and sent a “geyser” into the air.
Treated water flowed freely out to sea while more than 200,000 water supply accounts encountered dry or trickling taps as a result of the broken pipe.
