The Malaysian and Johor governments have decided not to review the price of raw water sold to Singapore for the time being, according to Deputy Minister of Energy Transition and Water Transformation, Akmal Nasrullah Nasir.
The decision was reached after discussions in October with Johor Menteri Besar, Dato’ Onn Hafiz Ghazi.
The 1962 Johor River Agreement set a price of 3 sen for every 1,000 gallons of raw water sold to Singapore, which then re-sells treated water to Johor at 50 sen per 1,000 gallons.
Johor currently uses an average of 16 million gallons of treated water per day from Singapore, exceeding the agreement’s limit of 5 million gallons.
This has resulted in an additional cost of around RM180,000 per year, sparking debate over whether this move should be continued.
To reduce dependency, Johor has launched a Zero Dependency initiative to achieve water self-sufficiency by 2030, which includes the construction of new water treatment plants and improvements to river infrastructure.
However, the rapid growth of industrial sectors such as semiconductors and data centres poses a major challenge.
With issues of cost, dependency, and infrastructure development on the table, Johor is now at a crossroads between current dependency and the pursuit of complete water self-sufficiency.
Is Zero Dependency a viable long-term solution, or will this agreement continue to dominate?
