ZDATA, which runs a 300 MW facility at Iskandar Puteri in Johor, told Reuters on 24 July that the site operates solely on treated wastewater, and that it is finalising a renewable supply deal with state utility Tenaga Nasional1. It is the first named-operator compliance response since Johor halted approvals for water-intensive projects. Johor's build-out target stands at 7,000 MW, eight times its current capacity, on a peninsula that shares its water politics with Singapore next door.
Residents of Iskandar Puteri protested against ZDATA's construction in February over falling water pressure. ZDATA disputes that its site caused it2. Developer Tropicana Firstwide set up two free car washes in response to complaints about construction dust, which tells you something about the register of the dispute. The residents' account and the operator's are both on the record; the water-pressure question has not been adjudicated by anyone.
Executive councillor Ng Sze Han has set out Selangor's rival approach: a 30 per cent local-content requirement plus energy and water efficiency vetting, rather than Johor's water tiering3. An operator that clears Johor on wastewater may fail Selangor on supply chains, and vice versa.
Two neighbouring states asking different questions of the same applicants creates an arbitrage rather than a standard. The developer picks the state whose test it already passes, and neither government learns what the other's test would have caught.
