Japan Lauded For Its Leading Role In Pahang-Selangor Water Transfer Project
The raw water tunnel is deemed to be Southeast Asia's longest tunnel.
By Liew Ashley — 24 Jan 2020, 12:12 PM
Recently, two Japanese companies provided state-of-the-art technologies for the construction of a raw water tunnel project from Pahang to Selangor
According to Bernama, the Japanese companies were instrumental in the establishment of the 44.6km long tunnel, which is considered to be Southeast Asia's longest tunnel.
To aid the project further, Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) provided soft loans worth 82 billion yen (about RM3 billion) payable over 40 years.
On Tuesday, 21 January, the country's leading role in the project has was commended by Water, Land, and Natural Resources Minister Datuk Dr Xavier Jayakumar.
"I thank the Japanese government. Japanese technology helped us through JICA and its funding as well in order to do this with local construction companies," he said, as quoted by Bernama.
"Now, we are bringing water across and this is a good working relationship between Japan and Malaysia as far as the water industry is concerned."
The Pahang-Selangor raw water project was developed to channel water directly to the Langat 2 water treatment plant in Hulu Langat
The proposed use of the tunnel was deemed necessary by the previous Federal Government in order to ease the burden of 6.7 million consumers in Selangor, Putrajaya, and Kuala Lumpur.
"The panel's proposals can be put in place to overcome the [water] shortage," then Minister of Energy, Science, Technology, Environment, and Climate Change Datuk Seri Dr Maximus Ongkili was quoted as saying by The Star in 2014.
Since then, latest reports have revealed that the current government has allocated RM4.2 billion for the construction of the Langat 2 plant
According to Bernama, the Langat 2 plant will be able to supply 1,130 million litres per day (MLD) to nearly two million people in the Klang Valley upon its full completion in 2023.
The Stream B of Langat 2 that was recently completed is set to supply 65 MLD to almost 900,000 residents in Hulu Langat, Cheras, Bangi, Semenyih, and Pudu areas.
With this project made possible by the Japan's technologies, Jayakumar says that Malaysians can always learn from the Japanese
The Minister added that Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad also continues to turn to Japan for new technologies, as well as to emulate their work ethics and business culture.
To learn more about how Japan manages their underground water systems, which is in line with Malaysia's own vision to tap underground water, Jayakumar announced that Japan had also offered to teach 10 to 15 Malaysian officers their ways.
"So, we are going to send these officers to Japan for six months or a year," the minister told Bernama.
Meanwhile, JICA Chief Representative in Malaysia expressed how the project represents Japan's objective of establishing quality infrastructure projects to improve the lives of Malaysians in all sectors
"The immediate beneficiaries are the people, not only the households but the industries, companies, and factories as well as the agricultural producers," Fukawa Kensuke said, as quoted by Bernama.
"It will give enormous benefits to the Malaysian people," the JICA chief representative added.
