1,500 MLN LITRES OF WATER DAILY MORE THAN ADEQUATE FOR BOTH STATES- CHOW

NIBONG TEBAL, July 4 (Bernama) -- Penang Chief Minister, Chow Kon Yeow, welcomed Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim's announcement that the Sungai Perak water project is expected to supply an estimated 1,500 million litres of water daily to northern Perak and Penang.

He stated that the estimated volume would be more than adequate for both states.

"The state government understands that a significant portion of this water supply is for Perak to support the Kerian Integrated Green Industrial Park (KIGIP) project.

"For a start, Penang hopes to receive approximately 700 million litres of water daily, but we haven’t entered into negotiations yet," he told reporters after the MADANI visit programme with the Indian community in Bandar Tasek Mutiara here today.

Chow said that the next step involves water companies from both states negotiating to establish pricing, the volume of water supply that can be distributed, and other terms.

He said initially the Penang government wanted to purchase raw water from the Perak state government, but now it is looking into purchasing treated water.

During the Ministers' Question Time session in the Dewan Rakyat two days ago, the Prime Minister stated that the raw water supply project from Sungai Perak to the Bukit Merah Reservoir, which is partly implemented to support the KIGIP project, is expected to supply an estimated 1,500 million litres of water daily to northern Perak and Penang. 

Anwar said the RM4 billion project is expected to commence this year.

-- BERNAMA