KUALA LUMPUR – Malaysia is pumping over RM5 billion (S$1.5 billion) into building three reservoirs and three water treatment plants in Johor, as the state aims to be self-sufficient in treated water within five years amid growing population and industrial needs.
The reservoirs, to be built around the basins of three rivers, are expected to cost over RM1.5 billion. They form part of the Malaysian government’s “Zero Dependency Project” to reduce the amount of treated water imported from Singapore, said Mr Mohamad Fazli Mohamad Salleh, Johor’s state executive councillor for works, transportation and infrastructure.
The trio of reservoirs will be paired with the new treatment plants, expected to cost RM3.5 billion, with a total capacity of 890 million litres per day (MLD), said Mr Fazli.
They will boost Johor’s treated water capacity by 41 per cent, to 3,061 MLD, from 2,171 MLD.
“We are targeting zero dependency on buying treated water from Singapore after 2030. But the main objective is that the new reservoirs will cater to the growth of industries in the JS-SEZ as well as the rise in data centres,” Mr Mohamad Fazli told The Straits Times on Feb 28.
The JS-SEZ was officially kicked in on Jan 6 with the signing of agreement between Malaysia and Singapore.
The federal Ministry of Energy Transition and Water Transformation told ST on March 3 that the reservoirs will be built around the basins of Sungai Johor, Sungai Pontian and Sungai Sedili.
Sungai Johor flows into the Johor Strait just north of Singapore’s Pulau Tekong; Sungai Pontian flows into the Strait of Malacca; and Sungai Sedili drains into the South China Sea.
The reservoir projects will be funded by the federal Malaysia government, while developing the three new treatment plants will be funded by the Johor state government through water operator, Ranhill SAJ, said Mr Fazli.
In addition, the water operator will be building another two water treatment plants with total capacity of 210 MLD to meet the present demand for water, he added. Ranhill SAJ currently oversees 46 water treatment plants in Johor.
Ranhill SAJ, which is partially state-owned, said that its infrastructure also includes 724 reservoirs and 24,150km of pipelines. It supplies treated water to four million people in Johor, Malaysia’s second-biggest state by population, after Selangor’s 7.4 million people.
Under a long term agreement which expires in 2061, Johor sells raw water to Singapore at 3 Malaysian sen per thousand gallons. On its part, Johor buys treated water from Singapore at 50 sen per thousand gallons, a fraction of the cost of treating the water.
Johor imports an average of 16 million gallons of treated water per day (mgd) from Singapore, well above the 5mgd that Singapore is obliged to sell back to Malaysia under the 1962 Johor River Water Agreement, Malaysia’s Deputy Energy Transition and Water Transformation Minister Akmal Nasrullah Mohd Nasir told Parliament on Dec 2, 2024.
In his parliamentary response to a question from a Member of Parliament from Johor, Mr Akmal said there are cost advantages for Malaysia to import treated water from Singapore rather than processing it itself.
“For comparison, treating the same amount of water locally would cost around RM1.80 per cubic metre, while the treated water we buy from Singapore costs about 11 sen per cubic metre”, he said.
While there are benefits to continue buying from Singapore, he said Malaysia needed to achieve zero dependency on water supply from the Republic “before we proceed with any new directions”.
Responding to ST queries, Mr Akmal’s ministry said that boosting Johor’s water supply “would cater for increasing demand for domestic use and data centres”.
Johor has emerged as a data centre hub for Malaysia. By 2024, the state government had approved 17 new data centres, [which will require a water supply of 59.06 MLD](https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/se-asia/malaysia-water-regulator-to-set-strict-water-rules-for-data-centres-as-number-grows). This additional demand will account for 2.7 per cent of Johor’s total treated water capacity.
The southern state is expected to host an additional 20 to 30 data centres by 2030, said Johor state investment and consumer affairs committee chairman Lee Ting Han.
Data centres use a lot of water to cool their servers, and there are growing concerns that data centres and semiconductor factories in the state would strain local resources such as treated water and electricity in the near future.
The state government has been encouraging data centres to transition to alternative water sources for their operations, such as reclaimed water from sewage plants, treated river water and rainwater.
The plan to boost treated water capacity will be a boon for growth in Johor, Malaysia’s third-biggest regional economy by gross domestic product, after Selangor and the federal territory of Kuala Lumpur.
Townships such as Iskandar Puteri and Kulai, along with prime industrial area and port Tanjung Langsat in Pasir Gudang, are undergoing significant greenfield projects requiring a greater supply of water, said Mr Lee.
“Johor plans to maintain a healthy water reserve margin of 15 per cent from 10 per cent currently, as developments in these areas are growing at a rapid pace,” Mr Lee told ST, referring to extra treated water kept on standby for periods of peak demand or emergencies.
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