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.