Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah

KUALA LUMPUR (July 25): Malaysia will honour the water agreement with Singapore, Foreign Minister Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah told The Straits Times (ST) yesterday.

Saifuddin, however, also added that Putrajaya is planning to restart negotiations on the pricing aspect of the deal.

Saifuddin told the Singapore-based daily that Malaysia understands the importance of water to both countries, saying: “Water is like our nerve system. We honour our nearest neighbour. Malaysia and Singapore have always enjoyed that special relationship. The idea is how we go about to continue from where we have stopped in the negotiation."

He told the ST that "water is a long story" with "nothing concrete decided" and that "we will continue talking to" Singapore.

The minister also shot down concerns about Malaysia cutting off water supply to the island republic, saying such plans are “definitely not in our mind.”

Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad has criticised the water agreement with Singapore that allows the republic to extract nearly 60% of its water needs from Malaysia at a fixed price, describing it as being "too costly", and also saying that it was an issue "we need to settle", Bloomberg reported recently.

In a Channel News Asia report last month, Dr Mahathir also described the 1962 Water Agreement as being “manifestly ridiculous. That was okay way back in the 1990s or 1930s”.

The agreement allows Singapore to import up to 250 million gallons of water from the Johor River every day from Malaysia at a cost of 0.03 sen per 1,000 gallons.

The deal also stipulates that the Lion City has to sell a small portion of the treated water to Malaysia at preferential rates.

According to a recent Reuters report, the water agreement was guaranteed by both governments when they separated in 1965

Singapore has constantly reiterated that the sanctity of the deal is crucial for its survival as an independent nation state.

Also on Saifuddin’s agenda is the Kuala Lumpur-Singapore high-speed rail (HSR) mega project.  

"We understand certain parts of the agreement will confine us to more or less agreeing to continue   [the HSR] but again, these are things that we want to negotiate. I believe that our Singapore counterpart will understand some of the difficulties the new government is faced with as far as this project is concerned," he told the ST.    

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