KL water shortage may affect S'pore

KL water shortage may affect S'pore

SINGAPORE (DPA): Malaysia's Johor state may not have enough water to keep supplying Singapore, which depends heavily on the region's resources, according to an academic quoted in the Straits Times newspaper yesterday.

Rapid urbanization and development in Malaysia are causing water consumption to rise at an alarming rate and have put the country on the brink of a "water crisis," associate professor Ariffin Omar of Malaysia's University Sains said.

Johor state, which borders Singapore and provides a large percentage of the tiny island nation's water supply by pipeline, saw its daily water consumption rise from 9.36 billion gallons (36 billion liters) in 1991 to 15.08 billion gallons in 1992.

Singapore currently receives 336 million gallons of water per day from Malaysia under two agreements. The first, which covers 86 million gallons per day, expires in 2011. The second, supplying the remaining 250 million gallons per day, expires in 2061.