SINGAPORE: The crown prince of Johor, Tunku Ismail Sultan Ibrahim, on Thursday night (Jun 28) thanked Singapore for helping the state during its drought seasons.

"Thank you to the Singaporean Government for helping Johor during the drought seasons and when we had our water crisis," he said in a post on the Facebook and Twitter pages of the Johor Southern Tigers, the football club he owns.



Describing Singapore as a "neighbour and a friend" in a separate Twitter post, the crown prince said that "we have always helped each other".

A neighbour and a friend.



Thank you to the Singaporean Government for helping Johor during the drought seasons & when we had our water crisis. We have always helped each other. May the close ties & friendship forged hundreds of years ago last forever.



HRH Crown Prince of Johor pic.twitter.com/ENsRQhbt8l — JOHORSouthernTigers (@OfficialJohor) June 28, 2018

"May the close ties and friendship forged hundreds of years ago last forever," he added.

The crown prince's social media posts follow comments from Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad that his government needed to discuss the "manifestly ridiculous" price at which it is selling water to Singapore.



Earlier, Bloomberg also reported that Mahathir intended to go back to the drawing board on the water accord, which is set to expire in 2061.

In response, Singapore's Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) said both countries must "comply fully" with the provisions of the 1962 Water Agreement and the 1965 Separation Agreement.

Under the agreement, Singapore is given full and exclusive rights to draw up to a maximum of 250 million gallons (mgd) of water per day from the Johore River.

In return, Johor is entitled to buy treated water of the same volume as up to 2 per cent of the water extracted by Singapore on any given day, or about 5mgd if Singapore draws its full entitlement of water from the Johore River.

SUPPLYING ADDITIONAL POTABLE WATER TO JOHOR

Singapore has on several occasions supplied additional potable water to Johor for various reasons, following requests for assistance from the Malaysian state's water regulatory body Badan Kawalselia Air Johor (BAKAJ).

On Jul 17, 2016, national water agency PUB said it will supply an additional 6mgd of potable water a day for three days to Johor on an urgent request from BAKAJ.

BAKAJ had said that it required the additional water to stabilise its own supply system in Johor Bahru after a temporary shutdown due to pollution in the Johore River.

A month before that in June, PUB also agreed to supply an additional 6mgd of treated water a day for one month to Johor, in order to supplement its supply after dry weather severely affected water levels in Johor's Sungei Layang dam.

The water issue: What's at stake and how did we get here? Explore historical footage and documents in our interactive special: http://cna.asia/water

