Johor invests $1.5b in water treatment infrastructure to reduce dependency on Singapore after 2030

The Johor government is spending over RM5 billion (S$1.5 billion) on building infrastructure to decrease Malaysia’s reliance on Singapore for treated water within five years.

Three reservoirs will be built around the basins of three rivers and will be paired with a trio of water treatment plants which are expected to have a total capacity of 890 million litres a day (MLD), said the chairman of Johor’s Public Works, Transport, Infrastructure, and Communications Committee, Mohamad Fazli Mohamad Salleh.

This will boost Johor’s treated water capacity by 41 per cent to 3,061 MLD.

The reservoirs will be built around the basins of Sungai Johor, Sungai Pontian and Sungai Sedili and funded by the federal Malaysia government, Fazli said, adding that the development of the three new treatment plants will be funded by the Johor state government through water operator Ranhill SAJ.

“We are targeting zero dependency on buying treated water from Singapore after 2030. But the main objective is that the new reservoirs will cater to the growth of industries in the JS-SEZ (Johor-Singapore Special Economic Zone), as well as the rise in data centres,” the committee chairman told The Straits Times.

Johor has already approved 17 new data centres, which will require 59.06 MLD of treated water, reported NST.

Johor Investment and Consumer Affairs Committee chairman Lee Ting Han told NST that the state could host up to 30 data centres by 2030, underscoring the need for a robust and sustainable water strategy.

Johor currently imports an average of 16 million gallons of treated water per day (mgd) from Singapore, “far exceeding” the 5mgd required under the 1962 Johor River Water Agreement, reported NST. It added that while water treated in Johor costs nearly RM1.80 per cubic metre, Singapore’s supply is at RM0.11 per cubic metre.

Deputy Energy Transition and Water Transformation Minister Akmal Nasrullah Mohd Nasir had also said in December last year that while there are cost advantages to continue buying from Singapore, Malaysia needs to achieve zero dependency on water supply from the Republic before it “proceeds with any new directions”.