This article first appeared in Corporate, The Edge Malaysia Weekly, on August 15 - 21, 2016.

MALAYSIAN netizens reacted negatively to news last month that Johor is buying water from Singapore. This has given rise to concerns as to whether the population’s water needs can be met, notwithstanding the country’s ample rainfall.

National Water Services Commission CEO Datuk Mohd Ridhuan Ismail says Johor and Singapore’s water agreement was mainly a commercial agreement that was based on a willing buyer and a willing seller.

The 1962 Johor-Singapore agreement, which lasts for 100 years, allows Singapore to draw 250 million gallons a day (mgd) from Johor. The latter, meanwhile, will get to buy up to 5% of the water after treatment at a huge discount.

But a major reason for Johor seeking an additional six million gallons of water over three days was due to rising ammonia levels in the Johor River. Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin had blamed a palm oil mill of “a government-linked company” for the incident.

“Whenever the dry season comes, we hear of pockets of high ammonia levels, water rationing or reducing-dam-level incidents. These are clear signs that our water services industry is not healthy,” says S Piarapakaran, president of the Association of Water and Energy Research Malaysia.

Apart from polluted rivers and rising temperatures due to deforestation, Piarapakaran highlights the increasing trend of converting water catchment areas and the surrounding land into plantations.

“The Gemencheh dam in Negeri Sembilan is a classic example of such a situation. It failed to function because the catchment area was converted into a palm oil plantation. Murky water being pumped to a dam will cause higher siltation and cause the dam to become shallow faster. This adds to its operational cost,” he says.

Yet, ultimately, raw water resources in Malaysia are still more than adequate, he says. World Bank data showed that the country received total rainfall of 2,875mm in 2014. This should add up to 951.06 million cu m of rainwater. Treated water consumed by Malaysians that year amounted to 3.71 million cu m.

Of course, not all the rainwater will be captured for consumption, but it is still more than enough. Water industry executives say that usually, only about a third of precipitation will be captured by treatment operators.

Water security, says former Malaysian Water Association chairman Tan Sri Syed Muhammad Shahabudin, “is all about the management of demand and supply”. Apart from non-revenue water (NRW, see related story), recycled water should be deemed a commodity, with many countries using it for their industries. In 2014, a total of 38.4% of water consumed was for the non-domestic segment.

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