DR Mahathir Mohamad said he intends to increase the price of raw water sold to Singapore by more than 10 times, to reflect the increased cost of living from when the agreement between both countries was inked in 1961.

Singapore pays 3 sen per 1,000 gallons of raw water and sells treated water back to Johor at 50 sen per 1,000 gallons.

In an interview with the Associated Press, Dr Mahathir said Johor’s supply of raw water to Malacca at 30 sen per 1,000 gallons was “charitable” and that an arrangement with a foreign country would need to be different.

“To a foreign country, we need to get more than that,” he said.

The current water agreement, which expires in 2061, sees Singapore drawing up to 250 million gallons a day (mgd) of raw water from Sungai Johor, and Johor entitled to 5mgd of treated water from Singapore.

Dr Mahathir’s comments are expected to draw sharp criticism from Singapore, which has said the price of water it sells back to Johor is heavily subsidised and already below the cost of treating the water.

The water issue has been brought up on several occasions in Malaysia since Pakatan Harapan took over the government.

Shortly after coming into power after leading PH to victory, Dr Mahathir said the deal was “too costly” and ridiculous.

Singapore has responded by saying Malaysia lost its right to review the price of water after it declined to do so in 1987.

Weeks earlier, Dr Mahathir announced the scrapping of the high-speed rail (HSR) project with Singapore, citing cost as the main factor.

At a forum yesterday in Singapore, panellists warned that the antagonism showed by the 93-year-old leader signals greater uncertainty on future bilateral ties between the two countries. – August 14, 2018.