Johor to review price of raw water

Charges to Singapore have not been increased for past 52 years, says state govt

JOHOR BARU: The Johor government wants to re-look at the raw water charges to Singapore which have not been increased for the past 52 years, says state public works executive councillor Datuk Hasni Mohamad.

He said the state government wants to increase its revenue and it is looking at its water supply deals with Singapore, Malacca, and Syarikat Air Johor (SAJ).

He pointed out that the state government received RM1.2mil monthly from SAJ, RM230,000 from the MalaccagovernmentandRM200,000 from the Public Utilities of Singapore (PUB).

Hasni also said that based on the Malaysia-Singapore Agreement signed in 1961 and 1962, PUB buys water at 3 sen for each 1,000 gallons of water and sells treated water back to Johor at 50 sen per 1,000 gallons.

“Singapore receives 250 million gallons (1,136 million litres) of untreated water from our side daily, while we only receive about 16 million gallons (72 million litres) of treated water from them.

“The Johor government has forwarded our arguments about raising the price of water to the Federal Government and we hope this will be brought up with the Singaporean side,” he added.

Hasni was speaking to reporters after witnessing the signing ceremony of the SAJ Corporate Integrity Pledge (CIP) with the Malaysian Anti- Corruption Commission (MACC) at Bangunan Sultan Ibrahim here yesterday.

Hasni said it was up to the Federal Government to decide whether to increase the charges of raw water to Singapore.

He also said that the state government is optimistic about raising the price due to several factors based on the agreements signed with Singapore. Ready to serve: