Singapore Won't Agree to One-sided Water Agreement with Malaysia: deputy PM

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Saturday, July 13, 2002

Singapore Won't Agree to One-sided Water Agreement with Malaysia: deputy PM

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Singapore Deputy Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has said that his country will not give in to a one-sided water agreement with Malaysia, according to the latest issue of magazine Per published by the ruling People's Action Party (PAP).

Lee was reported to make the point at a recent dialogue with women activists from the PAP days after the foreign ministers of Singapore and Malaysia met in Kuala Lumpur in early July and failed to reach concrete agreement in their negotiations for a package to solve the outstanding issues between the two countries.

Lee was quoted as telling these party activists that the outstanding water issue between Singapore and Malaysia boils down to price and that Singapore would continue to buy water from Malaysia as long as the price is right.

Under the existing water agreements that will expire in 2011 and 2061 respectively, Singapore now pays three sen for 1,000 gallons of the raw water from Johor, a Malaysian state neighboringSingapore. During the recent talks in Kuala Lumpur, the two sides tried to negotiate a new price structure using a new formula but they failed because of the wide gap over water price.

Responding to a question why Singapore doesn't give in a littleto avoid conflict with Malaysia, Lee said the bottomline is that giving in to a one-sided agreement is not a viable long-term solution.

Lee also assured the activists that with NEWater Singaporeans will not die of thirst. NEWater is referred to domestic waste water that has been purified for reuse instead of being dumped into the sea.

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