Did politicians purposely neglect Kelantan’s water issue to get more votes?

For years, if not decades, Kelantan has been having water woes, whether it be the iconic teh ais coming out from the taps or just… straight up no water.

The problem is so bad that there were reports of the Kelantanese relying on water dispensing machines and wells to get their water instead of just turning on the tap. It’s something most of us who live in KL or Selangor, taking long, hot showers after work every day, can’t imagine going through.

And if you’ve spent any time on the internet, you’re probably seen politicians saying they’ll fix Kelantan water, but how many times have they done that, exactly? Well, we tried to find and list every such instance, and…

At least 6 politicians have promised to fix Kelantan’s water since 2013

After digging through a couple of news archives, we found 6 different politicians who said they’d bring an end to Kelantan’s water woes in the last decade, with the most notable instances popping up on election years.

• 2013 – Najib promised, among other things, that the state’s water woes would be a thing of the past should Barisan Nasional retake Kelantan from PAS
• 2013 – Not to be outdone, Haji Ahmad bin Haji Yakob, Deputy Menteri Besar of Kelantan and a member of PAS, presented the party’s manifesto for GE13, promising free water to all Kelantanese schools, mosques and other places of worship,
• 2017 – Kelantan Amanah chairman Wan Rahim Wan Abdullah said that part of Pakatan Harapan’s ‘mini manifesto’ for GE14 will a focus on access to clean water in the state, cost of living and land issues
• 2017 – Then Kelantan UMNO Liaison Committee Chairman Mustapha Mohamed laid out BN’s GE14 manifesto for Kelantan that involved water supply
• 2018 – Hadi Awang, President of PAS, unsurprisingly made water part of PAS’s GE14 manifesto, which was themed ‘Solutions for People’s Well-being’
• 2018 – Nik Omar Nik Aziz, who was running for the Chempaka seat under PKR, criticized PAS’s impotence in solving Kelantan’s water supply issue, and promised that ‘all problems will be rectified’ if Pakatan Harapan takes the state

The promises don’t stop during off-election years

And seeing as the problem doesn’t magically disappear on non-election years, here’s another bevvy of politicians who have vowed to remedy the situation, ostensibly without attracting votes as their main goal:

• 2015 – ex-Terengganu Menteri Besar, Ahmad Razif Abdul Rahman, agreed to help Kelantan in overcoming the water woes faced by the residents of Pasir Puteh
• 2018 – Water, Land and Natural Resources Minister at the time, A. Xavier Jayakumar said that the government was identifying a new system that would provide clean water supply to the people of Kelantan, Sabah and Sarawak in five years’ time (it’s been about five years since)
• 2020 – Then Environment and Water Minister, Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man, sought RM7 billion from the federal government to resolve issues in Kelantan holistically
• 2020 – The federal government appeared to have approved the budget Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man requested 3 months earlier, and the Minister stated that Kelantan’s water woes would be over by 2023
• 2021 – Kelantan Menteri Besar Ahmad Yakob asked RM1.7 billion from the federal government to solve the state’s water supply issue in the short term

Unfortunately, Kelantan’s ill-fated relationship with water won’t be going anywhere soon, because…

Leaving Kelantan’s water issues unsolved might lead to more votes

Put on your tinfoil hats and hear us out: politicians might be leaving the issue unsolved, so it gives the people something to talk about, and use it to garner votes for the next election. “We’ll fix it once we get elected!” Then again, he theory’s probably not true cuz that would take a crazy amount of coordination between PAS and UMNO, plus the Kelantanese aren’t that dense to keep voting for politicians who do that.

The more realistic explanation is actually because it’s difficult for any one politician or government to fix Kelantan’s water supply within one election cycle. There are a few reasons for that (and we might do a separate article explaining everything), but long story short – as of 2022, an estimated 4,006km of pipes in Kelantan are in dire need of replacement.

Fast forward to 2023, and politicians are still saying they’ll fix Kelantan’s water issues ahead of the state elections. Take Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, for example:

“Umno will try to settle the problems and give the water supply that is clean and safe for consumption. Therefore, give us a chance to rule Kelantan,” – UMNO president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi at a press conference in March 2023

Anwar also said earlier this month that a special task force has been set up to look for ways to resolve water supply issues in Kelantan and Sabah and stressed that the situation in Kelantan is more dire due to the ‘huge financial requirement’. With that being said, residents of Kelantan will just have to wait and see what the aforementioned special task force have to say whenever they’re done with their research.