GEORGE TOWN – A pair of state leaders took potshots at each other on Facebook over the Kedah-Penang water disagreement, which began when Kedah Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Muhammad Sanusi Md Nor teased Penang Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow through his post this morning.
In the post, Sanusi said he had asked Chow about payments for raw water to Kedah when he met the Penang DAP chairman at Istana Negara last night.
“The Penang chief minister’s answer to me was ‘Penang cannot afford it; our revenue is not much.’
“It is very difficult to digest his answer because everyone knows that the Penang Water Supply Corporation (PBAPP) generates a lot of income and profit from supplying water to the industrial, shipping, and domestic sectors, using raw water originating from Kedah,” he said.
Sanusi said the demand for raw water payment was for Kedah and its people, a just and reasonable demand after Kedah’s sacrifice to keep the catchment area of hundreds of thousands of hectares.
Chow then shared the post and responded to it, stressing that Penang's stance had been officially stated many times.
“We will not pay because the issue of payment does not arise. This is because we take water from our state borders. It seems that Kedah still does not want to understand,” said Chow briefly and concisely.
Kedah has demanded since 2010 that PBAPP pay RM50 million annually for raw water resources from Sg Muda.
The issue of raw water resource claims was reignited in 2020 when Penang, through PBAPP, reprimanded the Kedah government for approving a permit to explore rare earth elements minerals in Ulu Muda.
The Penang government insisted on rejecting the claim and chose to defend the state’s riparian rights in court.
The Kedah government reportedly did not rule out the possibility of taking the issue of the raw water charge claim against Penang to court if the problem could not be resolved. – The Vibes, November 25, 2021
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