JOHOR BARU: Johor is looking into ways to leverage technology and collaboration with industry players to improve water supply and ensure sustainable water resource management.
Mentri Besar Datuk Onn Hafiz Ghazi said the state government is exploring the possibility of further treating surplus water from water treatment plants operated by data centre companies such as DayOne for public use.
“DayOne is using polluted water from Sungai Tebrau, treating it and using it for its own operations instead of relying on treated water meant for the public.
“I have been informed that Sungai Tebrau has a water flow of about 80 million litres per day, while DayOne uses a maximum of about 10 million litres per day.
“There is also surplus water from the data centre that could potentially be supplied to the public with an additional treatment process,” he said in his speech at the DayOne Kempas Tech Park Water Treatment Plant Phase Two expansion here yesterday.
Also present were state investment, trade, consumer affairs and human resources committee chairman Lee Ting Han and state education and information committee chairman Dr Muhammad Naqib Md Ghazali.
Onn Hafiz said he had called for a technical meeting to be held as soon as possible to explore the feasibility of how this technology could be used to increase water supply for the public, especially as Johor’s economy continues to grow.
He also said that DayOne had realised about RM25bil in investments in Johor as of September.
Onn Hafiz dismissed claims that technology, digital and AI companies investing in Johor offer limited employment opportunities for locals.
The state government, he said, has a technical committee to scrutinise data centre investments to ensure that they benefit the public.
“Three state executive councillors oversee this process and they meet every fortnight to deliberate and examine companies seeking to invest in Johor.
“In fact, the task force established in Johor has now been replicated at the federal level,” he said.
