PUTRAJAYA: The federal government disagrees with Kelantan’s RM8 billion proposal to solve water woes and wants the PAS-led state government to reduce the figure, said Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim.
He said the federal government also disagreed with the state’s proposal to build an extensive plant for a water reserve.
“We feel that a water reserve is unnecessary, so we think we can substantially reduce the figure,” he told reporters after presenting house keys to the owners of the Dalur civil servants housing project here today.
Anwar said he had met with Kelantan menteri besar Ahmad Yakob and Sabah chief minister Hajiji Noor as well as various stakeholders to discuss ways to resolve the water supply problems affecting the two states.
He said Kelantan’s water issue was more serious than that of Sabah’s because of the huge financial requirement, but stressed that the government was determined to solve the problem to ensure people had access to clean water.
The prime minister added that a special task force has been set up to look for ways to resolve the water supply issues in both states.
The task force will comprise representatives from the two state governments, finance ministry, and natural resources, environment and climate change ministry.
Last month, Anwar said the government would resolve the water woes of Kelantan and Sabah by the end of the year.