Government should revive water talks with Singapore

(The Star) JOHOR BARU: The Government should revive water talks with the Singapore Government as the country was getting a raw deal for the water supplied to the island republic.

Former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said that the negotiations should be continued although Malaysia had suspended all negotiations pertaining to the bridge project with Singapore last year.

Dr Mahathir stressed that during his time as Prime Minister, the Federal Government had spent RM700mil to build water treatment plants in Johor to stop the state from purchasing treated water from Singapore.

“Now we can negotiate for a new amount for our raw water as we do not need to purchase treated water from Singapore anymore,” he said, adding that if nothing was done on the matter, Singapore would continue to purchase water at three sen per 1,000 gallons until 2061.

Dr Mahathir was addressing some 400 people during a seminar on the challenges faced by the country to achieve 2020 organised by Kelab Maya Umno (Umno Cyber Club) here yesterday.

He touched on the bridge project to replace the causeway saying that it should have been continued as it would have benefited the country since it would have taken ships only three hours instead of 24 hours to sail from Port of Tanjung Pelepas in western Johor to Pasir Gudang in the eastern side. Ships now had to travel around Singapore.