Wan Fayhsal said the government should approve the disbursement of the funds, held by the National Water Services Commission (SPAN), before the tabling of the 2025 budget.
“Do not politicise the water issue. The longer the delay, the higher the maintenance costs the federal government will have to bear for all states.
“(Putrajaya should) start by ‘testing the waters’ in Machang!” he said in a Facebook post.
Wan Fayhsal said he sent a representative to meet SPAN chairman Charles Santiago to discuss the matter and was informed that there is an allocation for repairs, upgrades, as well as for efforts to tackle the NRW issue in Kelantan and the other PN-led states.
“However, SPAN cannot release the funds to the states without federal government approval,” he said.
He said that before he was suspended from the Dewan Rakyat, he asked about the government’s commitment to reducing NRW losses and when the additional RM500 million allocation would be disbursed.
The ministry provided him a “standard” answer involving unresolved negotiations between the federal and state governments, and whether the funds should be given in the form of a grant or a loan.
“As a politician, I understand the meaning of a ‘standard’ answer, and it boils down to the essence of politics: Who gets what, how, and when,” he said.
In June, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim announced an additional allocation of RM500 million to resolve the water supply issue in Kelantan. In the previous budget, RM1.1 billion was allocated to solve the country’s water woes.
Wan Fayhsal said he also wrote to energy transition and water transformation minister Fadillah Yusof, who oversees SPAN, and informed him of his constituency’s cooperation with an Indian tech firm to address NRW issues.
He said the technology used by the company helps to digitally detect ruptures and leakages that are monitored on a central dashboard on a real time basis. It also uses a “trench-less technology” to undertake quick non-disruptive repair of pipelines.
In the letter, dated July 14, Wan Fayhsal sought an appointment to meet the minister to discuss how pilot projects using this technology could be replicated across the country.