Going Dutch can transform water to gold

The National Legislative Assembly (NLA) finally passed the long-awaited water resource bill early this month, with 191 votes in favour, two votes against and six abstentions. The legislation did not make big news headlines. But for those who work in water resource management or have closely followed the issue, the passing of this bill is tantamount to the approval of the constitution in the 2016 referendum.

In essence, the bill, once receiving royal endorsement and then promulgated into law, will bring about enhanced cooperation and integrated water resource management across 38 government agencies under nine ministries. It will empower the Office of National Water Resources (ONWR), a new body established by the government last year, to be in charge of national water resource management and cooperation.

Since last year, the ONWR has acted as the single national command centre dedicated to the task of handling flood and drought crises. With the new law, it will carry on with such responsibilities while providing clear directives for these agencies which, for a long time, have been tasked with different responsibilities when it comes to managing water resources.

Aiming to boost efficiency in national water management, the bill is designed specifically to handle floods and drought. In short, we can expect less flooding and less drought.

The new law will exempt state agencies from criminal offences if they divert water from a river, a canal or a flooded area into a private property as the means to minimise the flooding impact on the public. However, those agencies will still be required to compensate the property owner for damages.

You might wonder why Thailand did not have this law before. In fact, in the past two decades, there have been different versions of the bill proposed by government agencies and NGOs. Each version, however, reflected their own agenda.

For the current bill, the government and state agencies are using the Netherlands’ water boards, the regional governmental bodies in charge of water management, as a prototype. The boards have the sole task of managing water resources in their localities. Similarly, the ONWR will be dedicated to water management.

Like it or not, the military government deserves some credit for passing the bill. However, this new law is far from perfect because it omits crucial elements of wastewater management and recycling. Wastewater and water reuse are rather new issues for Thailand. Wastewater management falls under the authority of local government agencies, the Pollution Control Department and the Ministry of Industry.

Governments view this issue as a scientific matter. Hannarong Yaowalers, a veteran conservationist who sits on the sub-committee drafting the bill, told me that he tried to convince other committee members to include the two issues in the bill but failed.

“Legislators and responsible officials from water management agencies still look at wastewater as an entirely different thing that needs to be handled by the pollution control agency,” he said.

That is a lost opportunity. Wastewater is one of the most ignored issues. Look at the canals in Bangkok and you will see how inefficient the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) is when it comes to wastewater management.

The BMA has limited technical capacity to treat wastewater. Believe it or not, less than 30% of wastewater from households and buildings in the city is sent to the BMA’s wastewater treatment plant. The rest is discharged elsewhere and is not recycled. That is a big loss.

For over a decade, City Hall has failed to pass a regulation that would allow it to collect wastewater treatment fees while preventing it from expanding its wastewater treatment plants.

The government should have included wastewater management in the water bill, so that this issue would have received priority from the national body and the NOWR. It also could have prevented massive amounts of wastewater from being discharged into waterways.

If the government really thinks that the Dutch water boards are a prototype for Thailand, it should realise that these regional bodies are in charge of a variety of issues including water levels and wastewater treatment.

The Dutch water boards use wastewater treatment to promote a circular economy by turning wastewater into a valuable asset — something the Thai government should also follow.

Anchalee Kongrut is an assistant editor, Bangkok Post.