Water: Singapore to rely less on KL

High time to take a new approach, says PM, and if it has to, Singapore can move on desalination, recycled water projects


The Straits Times, April 6, 2002
by Tan Tarn How


SINGAPORE plans to rely less on Malaysia for its water supply, to prevent the long-standing issue from continuing to strain ties between the two countries.

Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong said this in Parliament yesterday, adding that it was high time to find a new approach to water. It was not healthy to have the threat that the water might stop flowing hanging over Singapore's head, he said.

'I do not want our relations with Malaysia to be always strained by this issue. It is not healthy for our two countries to be always locked in dispute. It is unwise to allow this one issue to sour bilateral relations at all levels and on all fronts.'
That, he added, would breed mistrust, suspicion and 'does not make for a productive relationship'.

Singapore would thus 'move a little away' from dependence on Malaysian water, he said.

'This is doable if we have to do it,' he told MPs.

Tenders have been called for a desalination plant, and more plants for recycling water will be built besides the existing one. The cost of water from these sources was not too prohibitive, he added.

Mr Goh also disclosed that the Government would be sending a reply next week to Malaysia's latest proposal on the package of outstanding issues between the two countries.

He said this in a speech wrapping up the debate on the President's Address to Parliament, during which he focused on several strategic challenges facing the country.

Several MPs had touched on ties with Malaysia during the week-long debate, especially in the wake of the recent controversy over Singapore's land reclamation projects.

Mr Goh noted that this was an instance of the Malaysian media souring relations between the people of both countries through one-sided or inaccurate reports.

On the water issue, the Malaysian media had also given a skewed picture of Singapore profiteering and raking in huge profits of RM 600 million (S$291 million) by selling water from Johor to ships coming here. The actual figure is RM 40 million.

But the main gripe among Malaysians was over the current price of 3 sen per thousand gallons that Singapore now pays for raw Johor water under the two Water Agreements.
Singapore has offered to raise the price as part of the bilateral package. It is also prepared to vary the 1990 Points of Agreement between the two countries on Malayan Railway land, and offer Malaysia additional lots of land for joint development.

'All these concessions that Singapore has offered under the bilateral package must be taken into account when considering the price Singapore is willing to pay for water under a new agreement,' said Mr Goh.

The issue went beyond the price paid for Malaysian water, as agreed to under the 1961 and 1962 Water Agreements, he said, noting that some Malaysian reports had suggested that Malaysia change or revoke these agreements unilaterally if a new deal could not be sealed.

But the agreements were confirmed and guaranteed by both governments in the 1965 Separation Agreement, and breaching them 'would also call into question the Separation Agreement, and undermine our very existence'.

'This is totally unacceptable,' said Mr Goh.

He added that the water issue went back to Separation, when the then-Malaysian prime minster Abdul Rahman said Kuala Lumpur could use the threat of turning off the water supply to put pressure on Singapore.

He said: ''Time has not changed this perception.'

But removing the water issue from bilateral relations would not mean the end of disputes between the two close neighbours, given their 'shared and broken history' and the different ways in which they were organised, he said, noting that Singaporeans should take the ups and downs in relations with Malaysia in their stride.

Singapore, Mr Goh concluded, wanted to have good relations with Malaysia, which was its top trading partner last year.

'Cooperation would bring us greater benefit, certainly more than being at each other's throats,' he said.