The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration's bid to implement a plan to introduce a wastewater treatment fee is welcome news.
The plan was hatched in 2004 with a draft regulation, which due to some technical difficulties was shelved for nearly two decades. Now city authorities are dusting off the regulation and it is hoped the BMA will get the nod from city legislators by the end of this month.
If that is the case, the law, which is based on a "polluters pay" principle, can come into effect within a year.
The office of the Bangkok governor late last year resubmitted the old draft regulation to the City Council, asking it to review the draft more carefully.
Under city procedures, the approved draft will go back to city administrators who will have to get approval from the Interior Ministry before making it a law.
But it will take more time and effort before water quality can be improved.
If and when the draft is endorsed as a law, it doesn't mean the polluters pay principle will be fully applied given the fact that only 21 out of 50 districts -- which is less than half of City Hall's jurisdiction -- have water treatment facilities. It remains unclear why the city's administration has been so sluggish in such an important mission.
It is reported that water treatment facilities are provided for only big districts located in inner areas of Bangkok.
Needless to say, without water treatment plants in such a huge area, it means sections of the Chao Phraya River have become open sewers since they directly receive water discharge from households. In addition, there are questions about the efficacy of the existing facilities in the 21 districts.
It is well-known that the water from the Chao Phraya, which is a major national artery, is of poor quality and too dirty to drink. As a result the river has for decades only served as a transportation route.
It is therefore necessary for City Hall to speed up its efforts in filling the gap, building more water treatment plants to cover all areas. These plants must be practical, suited to each respective area and easy to run. This cannot be done overnight, but the sooner the better.
In addition, city administrators must be aware of a major hurdle it will face after this.
It is the same hurdle that has crippled the whole process over the past few decades: a lack of cooperation from concerned agencies, in particular the Metropolitan Waterworks Authority (MWA) which is supposed to act as a fee collector since it already handles water bills.
The two agencies have failed to reach an agreement over a collection charge. The city administrators claimed the MWA demanded too high a charge which would add to tapwater bills and be too much of a burden on ordinary people.
Also, there are reports that the MWA is reluctant to do the job for fear of adverse effects. A city source told the Bangkok Post the MWA does not want to "take the blame politically for something that does not actually concern it". Such an attitude is wrong.
It is time both sides started negotiating and find ways to cast aside their differences and impose the long-delayed fee. The Interior Ministry, which oversees both the city administration and the MWA, must intervene if the two agencies stick to their guns.
Of course, water will become more expensive after the fee, which is calculated per cubic metre of used water, is added to the bill. That is not avoidable.
But one plus side for imposing the fee is that people will automatically avoid wasting this scarce resource.
On top of that, City Hall must speed up building new water treatment facilities in the remaining 29 districts.
Only this will revive the Chao Phraya River and make it the real pride of the nation.
