JOHOR BARU: Johor Barisan Nasional (BN) has expressed full support for the state government to renegotiate the water rates to Singapore.
State opposition leader Datuk Hasni Mohammad said it was about time the current deal, which sees Singapore paying only three sen per 1,000 gallons of water was reviewed.
Hasni said the new water tariff negotiations were previously cancelled when Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad was prime minister in the 1980s.
He said it happened when Singapore imposed numerous conditions such as the KTM land in Tanjong Pagar, sand export quota, airspace usage and also their employee provident fund (CPF) contributor status.
“Now, those conditions should no longer arise because they are not an issue anymore or have already been resolved,” he said.
Hasni, who was the state Public Works, Rural and Regional Development committee chairman in the previous BN administration, said the state government should not worry as even Attorney-General Tommy Thomas had confirmed that Malaysia has the right to propose new rates.
“I am sure Dr Mahathir has the political will to do it, although it is possible that Singapore will now link the water rates to the Pulau Batu Puteh issue as well as raising the price of treated water that Singapore currently supplies to Johor,” he said in a statement today.
The Benut assemblyman said raw water supply of 250 million gallons a day will “make Singapore do anything to guarantee their position.”
The issue of cheap water supply to Singapore has been raised again after Dr Mahathir said the price of raw water sold to Singapore was "ridiculous".
Under a deal penned in 1962, Singapore can import up to 250 million gallons of water from the Johor River every day from Malaysia — around 58 per cent of its current daily water needs — at a cost of three sen per 1,000 gallons.
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