Current Issues & Critical Thinking (Singapore and Malaysia’s dispute over the pricing of the water from the water agreement) There has been a heated argument between Singapore and Malaysia over the pricing of water that was agreed in 1961 water agreement. From the article, “Malaysia will not admit defeat to Singapore on issue of water price review, say foreign deputy minister,” the foreign deputy minister is greatly angered that Singapore had accused Malaysia of profiting from the 5 million gallons of treated water (2% of the treated water supplied to Singapore) at 50sen per 1,000 gallons of water. Also, Malaysia was accused of selling the water to Malaysian citizens at Rm3.95 and profiting from it at RM 48 million. Malaysia has stated that after the agreement ends in 2061, they will lose RM 1.8billion if the terms remain at 3 sen for 1000 gallons of water. Malaysia hopes they could resolve the issue as soon possible in the future.
In the second article, “PAP MP claims raw water from Malaysia costs $0.00 since it falls from sky” the East Coast GRC MP Lee Yi shared a cost breakdown and mentioned that the cost of raw water to Malaysia(rainwater) cost $0. Malaysia charges Singapore for raw water at $0.03/ 1000 gallons. Singapore’s cost of treating water RM 2.
40/1000 gallons. Singapore only charges Malaysia at RM 0.50. Malaysia sells to its consumers at RM$ 3.60/1000 gallons.
Singapore sells 100 gallons of water at $17 which is daylight robbery to Malaysia. The article highlights that there was a lot of backlash to this whole situation towards the Singapore government. In my view, I agree with the netizens that Singapore is profiting way more than Malaysia even after covering cost for their employees and the water treatment.
The best way to resolve such matters would be to hold a summit to address any heat between the two countries and that they would have to sort out the cost for both parties to be happy. Also, Singapore has to definitely reduce the cost of water that they expect their consumers to pay for the treated water.(348 words.)
