Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad has once again raised concerns over Malaysia’s long-standing water agreement with Singapore, criticizing the current government for failing to renegotiate the deal. According to the former prime minister, Malaysia continues to suffer financial losses due to the outdated agreement, which allows Singapore to buy raw water from Johor at an extremely low rate of 3 sen per 1,000 gallons.
Dr. Mahathir expressed frustration that despite his previous calls for a fairer pricing structure, no efforts have been made to address the issue. Instead of taking action, he claimed, government supporters have attempted to deflect by questioning why he did not renegotiate the deal during his own tenure as prime minister. In response, he pointed to documented attempts at renegotiation, including discussions initiated when he served as Malaysia’s seventh prime minister.
He highlighted that during his time in office, he personally brought up the matter with Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, who agreed to let officials from both countries discuss the issue further. However, Singapore’s Foreign Minister Dr. Vivian Balakrishnan later questioned the need for such discussions on the matter in the Parliament.
Dr. Mahathir also criticized a Malaysian deputy minister’s explanation in Parliament, where it was claimed that raising the price of raw water could prompt Singapore to increase the price of treated water sold back to Johor. He argued that this should not have been a deterrent, as the federal government had already allocated funds for Johor to build its own filtration plant. If the project had been completed, Johor would no longer need to rely on Singapore for treated water.
He questioned why the filtration plant was never built and why Johor continues to pay 50 sen per 1,000 gallons for treated water from Singapore while selling raw water at a fraction of that cost. In his view, Malaysia should not be afraid of asserting its right to a fair deal, emphasizing that demanding a reasonable price for water would not jeopardize diplomatic relations between the two nations.
Dr. Mahathir’s remarks reignite the long-debated water issue, putting pressure on the Malaysian government to reconsider its stance and push for a more equitable agreement with Singapore.
Information Source: Facebook
Kamran is a content creator under the Newswav Creator programme, where you get to express yourself, be a citizen journalist, and at the same time monetize your content & reach millions of users on Newswav. Log in to creator.newswav.com and become a Newswav Creator now!
The User Content (as defined on Newswav Terms of Use) above including the views expressed and media (pictures, videos, citations etc) were submitted & posted by the author. Newswav is solely an aggregation platform that hosts the User Content. If you have any questions about the content, copyright or other issues of the work, please contact Newswav.
