KUALA LUMPUR, March 4 ― The Pahang state government wants a stake in the company that treats and sells the water it supplies to Selangor now that a deal has been reached for the construction of the Langat 2 water treatment plant.

Pahang Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Adnan Yaakob said revenue from the sale of raw water comes up to between RM70 to RM80 million a year, Malay language daily Utusan Malaysia reported

“This amount is not overly huge, in fact, even the salaries of our employees are greater than that amount,” he was quoted as saying.

In 2007, the Pahang and Selangor state governments signed an agreement on the sale of raw water channeled through a tunnel from Sungai Semantan to Sungai Langat.

Last week, Putrajaya and the Selangor state government signed a deal to end water woes in the state.

Under the agreement, Selangor will take over the operations of four private water concessionaires for RM9.65 billion.

The agreement will also lead to the construction of the long-opposed Langat 2 water treatment plant.