Wastewater tariffs in Thailand

Wastewater is one of the most serious environmental problems in Thailand. The major source of water pollution in the country is domestic wastewater discharge. The need for the provision of wastewater collection and treatment facilities has long been identified by Central Government as a part of its efforts to protect the environment and well being of the population. Implementation of wastewater treatment projects over the past decades was driven by Central Government because of its technical knowhow and capacity to provide funding. However, when these facilities were handed over to local government authorities to operate and maintain, the concerned government agency had difficulty to manage the facilities in a sustainable manner due to inadequate planning, budgeting and ownership. They were unprepared technically as well as financially to deal with the duties imposed on them. Currently, the Thai Government is in the process of constructing 95% of wastewater treatment plants all over the country. The polluter pay principle (PPP) was introduced to justify the adoption of wastewater tariffs as an alternative source for funding the operation and maintenance of wastewater treatment facilities. The Government in the past adopted a passive role with regard to the introduction of wastewater tariffs. Since the enactment of National Environmental Quality Act, B.E. 2535 (1992), more administrative measures become available, including the implementation of tariff system for schemes funded under the Environment Fund. However there are still political and social obstacles in the introduction of effective, sustainable funding of wastewater facilities, including the perceived low willingness of beneficiaries to pay for wastewater services and the general unwillingness of the water supply sector to combine collection and billing of charges for water supply and the wastewater services. As this concept is new to the Thai Government, it is not yet widely applied. Currently there are only 3 out of 95 local government authorities utilizing the wastewater tariffs and a few more are working toward this end.This paper investigates the application of wastewater tariffs based on the pollution pay principle.