ALOR SETAR, March 9 — The Penang government has been urged to consider paying Kedah for using its water resources.

Kedah Mentri Besar Muhammad Sanusi Md Nor said currently Penang is using 56 per cent of water sourced from the catchment area in Ulu Muda in Kedah and not paying the Kedah state government a single sen.

Citing Australia and Canada as examples, Muhammad Sanusi said states in the two countries would pay maintenance fees to the states that own water catchment areas.

He added the country’s utility company Tenaga Nasional Berhad would pay the service charge to each of the states that allow the company to use its water resources to power turbines to generate electricity, adding that as a state that is using other state’s water resources, Penang should understand and consider this matter.

He said there were various ways for Penang to determine payment to Kedah for its water usage and the matter should be negotiated between the two state governments with the federal government acting as the facilitator.

"Penang uses 1,200 million litres per day (MLD) pumped from one water treatment plant, while Kedah only uses 780 MLD of water.  If Penang does not want to use the MLD method, then it can use other methods such as paying maintenance fees,” he said.  — Bernama