SINGAPORE, will not renew the 1961 Water Agreement with Malaysia after it expires in 2011, Malaysian Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said Monday, August 5.

He said Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong told him this at a meeting between them at the Istana, here.

However, Goh said that the republic was prepared to buy some water from Malaysia after the expiry of the agreement, but the price must be "right", he added.

Briefing Malaysian journalists on his discussions with the prime minister, Muhyiddin, who is on a two-day working visit to the republic, said that Singapore, which wanted to reduce its dependence on Malaysian water, planned to allow the agreement to lapse as it had the means to produce sufficient water by then.

Singapore, he said, planned to develop alternative sources of water by increasing its catchment areas and through its recycled water, NEWater, and desalination. NEWater is a new alternative source of water for Singapore, obtained by treating used water.

By next year, the republic's Bedok and Kranji NEWater plants will be in operation, and by 2011, two more NEWater plants in Seletar and Ulu Pandan will be ready.

On April 5 this year, Goh explained in Parliament that Singapore wanted to reduce its dependence on Malaysian water as he felt that it was not healthy for both countries to be always locked in disputes over water and to allow this one issue to sour bilateral relations.

Under both the 1961 and 1962 Water Agreements, Singapore now imports 350 million gallons of raw water daily from Johor, which in turn buys back 37 million gallons of treated water daily at 50 sen per 1000 gallon.

On this, Muhyiddin said Goh told him that Singapore felt that it was not necessary to raise the quantum of water (350 million gallons) that it currently imports from Johor, and that the quantum would stay until the 1961 agreement lapsed in 2011.

However, the prime minister assured him that Singapore was prepared to continue buying water from Malaysia, even in the long term as it wanted to maintain good relations with Malaysia, but "the price must be right."

Goh said last week: "It's a trade and has to be on a willing seller-willing buyer basis. In other words, both sides have to agree on the quantity and must agree on price."

Singapore's Foreign Minister S. Jayakumar said in parliament last month that Singapore had proposed that the price of any treated water that it buys from Malaysia after the expiry of the current agreements be pegged to an agreed percentage of the cost of NEWater.

He has said that Singapore was willing to consider Malaysia's reqest to review the current price of three sen per 1000 gallons for raw water from Johor, as part of the package of outstanding issues being negotiated.

Goh told Muhyiddin that he was hopeful that the outstanding bilateral issues could be resolved "the soonest possible" when officials from both sides meet here on Sept 2-3.

During the one-hour meeting, both leaders discussed areas of cooperation in transportation and tourism.

Muhyiddin, who is here at the invitation of the Minister of Trade and Industry, Brigadier-General George Yeo Yong-Boon, was accompanied by Deputy Human Resources Minister Dr Abdul Latiff Ahmad, Deputy Speaker of the Dewan Rakyat Datuk Lim Si Ching and Malaysian High Commissioner to Singapore Datuk Hamidon Ali.

-- BERNAMA

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