Singapore eyes 100-year water deal with Indonesia

Singapore eyes 100-year water deal with Indonesia

SINGAPORE (AFP): Singapore, currently dependent on Malaysia for most of its water supply, could turn to Indonesia as a source if Jakarta can assure a 100-year deal, a top official said in remarks published Saturday.

Economic Development Board (EDB) chairman Philip Yeo was quoted as saying by the Straits Times that an US$8 billion, 22- year gas supply deal signed in Jakarta on Friday could be a model for a water agreement.

Yeo, who witnessed the signing, said in Jakarta that the West Natuna gas project "is a further extension of the close cooperation Indonesia and Singapore have enjoyed in the economic sphere since 1990."

On a possible water deal, the Straits Times quoted him as saying Singapore could become a long-term customer if Indonesia decides to develop its water resources and sell quality supplies at a viable price.

"They know Singapore needs water. They're keen to supply to us, and they know that we are a long-term customer," he said.

"If they can assure us of 100 years' supply at a stable price and quality, why not?" Yeo added.

But he stressed that Singapore would go ahead with the development of desalination plants, a costly means of making seawater potable, in order to obtain its own permanent supply.

"One hundred years. We don't want any short-term arrangement, unlike for gas, which we can always buy anywhere," Yeo said.

Malaysia's southern state Johore currently supplies 214 million liters of raw water to Singapore, and buys back 35 million liters of treated water from the island's waterworks facilities, the newspaper said.

Two Malaysia-Singapore water supply agreements will expire in 2011 and 2061 respectively, and negotiations are going on for a possible extension.

Last month, Malaysia dropped plans to seek US$4 billion in financial aid from Singapore in exchange for a long-term water deal.

A new water pact extending beyond 2061 would now be discussed as part of a package with other outstanding bilateral issues including a dispute over railway land and operations, officials said.

Relations have often been stormy since their separation in 1965, when largely ethnic-Chinese Singapore was expelled from the Malaysian federation amid a bitter dispute over Kuala Lumpur's plans to give preferential treatment to the ethnic Malay majority.