He was responding to Perak menteri besar Saarani Mohamad’s statement that the project will not take off this year since Putrajaya has yet to allocate the money to build a plant to send treated water to Penang.

“Perak and Penang have yet to agree on implementation and financing, or even sign an agreement. We are not expecting the project to kick off today and be completed this year itself.

“We know this project will take six to eight years to be completed. For us, inking an agreement would be a good start,” Chow told reporters on the sidelines of the launch of the Penang Internet Exchange here today.

The water transfer scheme was originally conceptualised to allow Perak to transfer raw water to Penang, whose main source of supply, Sungai Muda, is expected to dry up by 2030.

However, it has been proposed that Perak build a water treatment plant to send treated water to Penang instead.

The previous Perak government under Zambry Kadir’s leadership had agreed to sell treated water to Penang at 70 sen per 1,000 litres, which Penang had refused, because of the cost, and contradiction of the federal convention that only raw water can be sold between states.

Saarani had previously also been against sending raw water to Penang, claiming that local demand made it impossible. However, the National Water Services Commission (SPAN) dismissed that claim, saying that Sungai Perak had more than enough water for both states.

Meanwhile, Chow said that since Perak has finally agreed to sell treated water to Penang, the Penang government will not be involved in the construction of the treatment plant.

He said the purchase price for the treated water has not been decided yet, as the deal is being negotiated by SPAN.