GEORGE TOWN, March 22 — Penang is not giving up on its proposed Sungai Perak Raw Water Transfer Scheme (SPRWTS) as a solution to water woes faced by the state and northern Perak. 

Penang Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow said he has raised the importance of implementing the project in a recent meeting with the prime minister along with other states’ chief ministers and mentris besar.

“It was recorded in the meeting minutes that we have requested for all studies on this project has to be completed as soon as possible,” he told a press conference after officiating a ‘Negalitres for Schools’ programme in Komtar today. 

He said the Ministry of Environment and Water (Kasa) is responsible for following up with the matter raised in that meeting. 

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Currently, Kasa is conducting a study to ascertain the need for this project and to look at various technical issues, the alignment and extraction points.

“We have not stopped pursuing the issue whether through correspondence that we do on a regular basis or through meeting the appropriate authorities,” Chow said. 

He said in the meeting with the Perak Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Saarani Mohamad early this month, he had tried to impress on Saarani that the project is needed for both Penang and upper Perak districts as the area faced similar issues as Penang. 

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“This is an important project to bring water from Sungai Perak to upper Perak and Penang and needs to be implemented as soon as possible,” he said. 

He said the issue of water resources in the northern region should be considered a national issue as it is not merely about shortage of water in one state. 

He said water resources should not be ‘held tightly’ as if the water belonged to only one state when the water eventually flows back into the sea. 

“We have plenty of water in the country, which is why we still see places getting flooded, it is water management that matters,” he said. 

He said if the federal government were to take this issue seriously, it should set up the Ulu Muda River Basin Water Authority as proposed by Penang a while back. 

“This is to look at the whole water issue in the northern region as a whole as it does not only serve one state but Kedah, Langkawi, Perak and Penang,” he said. 

He pointed out that the Northern Corridor Implementation Authority (NCIA) was formed to look after the Northern Corridor Economic Region (NCER) to push for the region to excel economically. 

Chow pointed out that both Penang and Kedah contributed about 80 per cent of the total foreign direct investment (FDI) in the country in 2021. 

Therefore, he said the federal government should look at the contributions from the northern region as a whole which included exports, trade and industries. 

“We need to look at the northern region as a whole that includes its water supply issues, not only the ports, transport hub, electric supply and railway line,” he said. 

He said the northern region may not be able to contribute towards the country’s economy in future if water supply to the region was stressed. 

He lamented the fact that numerous appeals on this issue have fallen on deaf ears. 

“Until now, there were no sympathetic ears and they did not take our appeals seriously enough,” he said. 

He also reiterated that Penang has its own contingency plan, the Penang Water Supply Initiative 2050, to be implemented in case the SPRWTS could not be implemented. 

“Assuming that the Sungai Perak project is not approved, we have to look at other methods including desalination as the sea around us will give us the water security needed,” he said.

Chow cautioned that desalination will be the most expensive solution and the earliest it could be implemented will be in 2033. 

“It is 10 years from now, so hopefully in 10 years, everything will fall into place so that we do not have to resort to this expensive method,” he said.

He pointed out that Malaysia has plenty of water resources so it will only become a laughing stock internationally if one of its states has to rely on desalination for water supply.