Singapore will “fully honour’’ the terms of its 1962 water agreement with Malaysia and expects the latter to do the same, said the city-state’s Foreign Minister before Parliament Monday.

The status of the deal was called into question recently, when Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamed criticized its terms.

“Neither Malaysia nor Singapore can unilaterally change the terms of this agreement between our two countries,’’ said Singapore Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan in Parliament.

The agreement allows Singapore to draw 250 million imperial gallons (about 946 million liters) of water per day from Malaysia’s Johor River at a cost less than 1 U.S. cent per thousand gallons a price Mahathir called “manifestly ridiculous’’ in an interview with Channel NewsAsia.

Johor’s chief minister, Osman Sapian, commented earlier that the state hopes it can raise the price at which water is sold to Singapore to 50 Malaysia cents per 1,000 gallons instead a 17 fold increase.

In turn, Balakrishnan stated that Singapore treats the water and sells a portion of it back to Malaysia at a cost of 50 Malaysian cents per thousand gallons, a price he said was “a fraction of the cost to Singapore.” (dpa/NAN)

– July 9, 2018 @ 10:45 GMT |