Xavier: Ministry to study potential use of groundwater

SHAH ALAM: The Ministry of Water, Land and Natural Resources is conducting a thorough study on the potential of groundwater as a new source of water for the country, its Minister Dr Xavier Jayakumar said yesterday.

He said the study showed that there were between three to five trillion cubic metres of groundwater across the country, and Kelantan was currently the only state which used groundwater.

He said stakeholders were holistically assessing the potential, and identifying which areas were suitable to be used.

"There are those who say that if we use groundwater, it will cause sinkholes, but in this country, it rains about 196 days, so we have no problem," he said during Sinar Harian's discourse on water conservation here yesterday.

On the increase in water tariff rates, Dr Xavier said the government had to do it to ensure that the water industry remained healthy.

He said, however, the government would impose reasonable water tariffs and ensure the B40 group did not feel the brunt.

"There are states where the tariffs have not been raised in 30 years, while the expenditures for managing this industry is according to the current rates," he said.

Meanwhile, National Water Services Commission (SPAN) chief executive officer, Datuk Mohd Ridhuan Ismail said during the discourse that the low tariffs for water was among the reasons many people in the country wasted the resource.

He noted that the water rate in the country was RM 0.52 sen per cubic metre, much lower compared to some neighbouring countries such as Thailand which is more than RM1 and Singapore at about RM3.