
Johor has marked a milestone with the unveiling of the country’s first large-scale water reclamation plant dedicated to supporting data centre operations, located in Ulu Tiram, Johor Bahru.
Eric Fan, president of Bridge Data Centres (BDC), said the project, which began about 10 months ago, features a comprehensive pipeline system that channels municipal wastewater directly to the treatment facilities. “We have all the pipelines transporting all the municipality wastewater into our treatment plants. We treat that to high grade pure water to be used for our data centre,” he told Bernama during a site visit to the Water Reclamation Plant in Desa Cemerlang, Ulu Tiram.
He described the initiative as a demonstration project to assist both the Malaysian and Johor governments in addressing water supply constraints for the industry. “I think this is sort of like a benchmark for the data centre sectors. I think it’s the first in Malaysia and I believe nobody else has done this large size water reclamation plant for the data centre purpose. It is specifically for the cooling process of data centres.”
The project involves the treatment of four million litres per day (MLD) of effluent from Indah Water Konsortium’s JB-Pelangi Sewage Treatment Plant (JBR005), which will be supplied to the BDC facility for reuse in cooling operations. Johor Special Water Sdn Bhd (JSW) will manage the delivery of treated effluent and liaise with local authorities to secure necessary approvals.
“The project is already running and is now in the final stage of testing and commissioning,” Fan said, highlighting that the plant promotes sustainability by recycling treated wastewater that would otherwise be discharged, reducing the need to source fresh water from rivers.
The launch was attended by Deputy Prime Minister and Energy Transition and Water Transformation Minister Datuk Seri Fadillah Yusof, Johor Menteri Besar Datuk Onn Hafiz Ghazi, and Johor Investment, Trade, Consumer Affairs and Human Resources Committee chairman Lee Ting Han.
Source: https://www.businesstoday.com.my/2025/08/11/johor-launches-malaysias-first-large-scale-water-reclamation-plant-for-data-centres/