Shanmugam discusses “issue relating to water” with Malaysian counterpart

Singapore Foreign Affairs Minister K Shanmugam says Malaysian Foreign Minister Anifah Aman listened and understood Singapore’s position on the issue.
Channel NewsAsia 4 Aug 15;

KUALA LUMPUR: Singapore's Foreign Affairs Minister K Shanmugam has met his Malaysian counterpart Anifah Aman to discuss an issue relating to water, he revealed to reporters on the sidelines of the ASEAN Foreign Minister's Meeting in Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday (Aug 4).

"I had some months ago raised with him an issue relating to water which is of importance to us and Prime Minister had also raised it with the Malaysian Prime Minister at the last retreat and I followed up today because it's quite important and he listened and he understood our position," said Mr Shanmugam.

He declined to go into details, but when asked if their discussion had anything to do with the price of water tariffs, he said: "It has something to do with that".

"It's not quite a breakthrough, but we had to say what our position was and we are hoping for certain actions," Mr Shanmugam stated.

His comments come a day after Singapore's Environment and Water Resources Minister Vivian Balakrishnan visited the Linggiu Reservoir in Johor, an important source of water for Singapore. During the visit, Dr Balakrishnan warned that water levels at Linggiu Reservoir are at "unprecedented" low levels.

Singapore currently imports water from Johor, under the terms of the 1962 Water Agreement which expires in 2061. This agreement is guaranteed by both Governments in the 1965 Separation Agreement, which was registered with the United Nations. Both countries have to honour the Water Agreement and the guarantee in the Separation Agreement. Any breach of the Water Agreement would also be a breach of the Separation Agreement and of international law. The Water Agreement provided the two countries with the right to jointly review the price of water after 25 years, in 1987.

However, Malaysia consciously chose not to review the price. Malaysia benefits greatly from the current pricing arrangement. Johor buys 16 million gallons per day of treated water back from Singapore at 50 sen per 1000 gallons. This is a fraction of the true cost to Singa¬pore of treating the water, which includes building and maintaining the water purification plants.

In March last year, Mr Shanmugam told Parliament that Malaysia has lost the right to review the price of water that it supplies to Singapore under the terms of the 1962 Water Agreement. Media reports then suggested that Johor officials wished to raise the price of raw water supplied to Singapore.

- CNA/ly