“Adding to Singapore’s sense of water insecurity is that, in 2000, the Indonesian President stated that Singapore’s water supplies could easily be cut off by a “Malaysian-Indonesian alliance”.

This worried Singaporeans as they had looked to Indonesia as an alternative source and signed a water agreement with them in 1991. Progress on building the necessary supply and distribution network was slow due to Indonesia’s political climate, but Indonesia did at one point become a more viable alternative. Discussions to buy water from Indonesia resurfaced again in 1999 and Indonesia appeared more amenable to the idea. However, no concrete progress has so far been made. Given its history with Indonesia and experience with Malaysia, Singapore remains concerned that Indonesia is as willing as Malaysia to use water as a political tool.”