Construction Ministry technical
infrastructure administration director Nguyen Hong Tien spoke with Tuoi Tre
(Youth) newspaper about a proposal to include installation and maintenance costs
in clean water fees.

Why has the Viet Nam Water Supply
and Drainage Association proposed to permit households to pay a monthly
subscription fee for their clean water?

Government Decree 117 on clean water supply
regulates that suppliers have to pay for installing water pipeline systems and
water meters. For this reason, the decree states that households using less than
4cu.m of water will still have to pay fees for the minimum quantity of water
use.

The Ministry of Construction has received
more than 60 petition letters from water suppliers and producers asking that the
decree be reconsidered. There is a small number of households using less than
4cu.m of water but most of them are poor.

How will it be changed?

There are various suggestions. They include
keeping the minimum payment, the equivalent of 4cu.m of water, intact but
compensating households with only a few people and households which are poor.
One opinion suggests the regulations be abrogated if households pay for the
water pipeline and meters. Another contribution recommended water supply
companies be permitted to collect monthly fees until they retrieved their
investment capital. Many people supported the inclusion of the water pipeline
and meter installation and maintenance costs into water prices.

But many people said the application
of monthly subscription fees on water use recommended by the Viet Nam Water
Supply and Drainage Association would cause a loss to households using less than
4 cubic metres of water. Is that true?

It is difficult to please everyone. The
thing is how to put forth a project reasonable to the majority. It will not be
okay if amendments are made to satisfy only a small number of people while the
majority will suffer loss. At present, many opinions support charging for water
use by a monthly subscription fee or a fee based on water use.

There is also an opinion which
supports raising water prices for households and units using water for
production purposes and using that money to install and maintain water pipeline
systems for household use?

It is not enough to only use the increase
to install and maintain water pipelines. Water prices must rise otherwise water
supply companies will not make a profit. Many opinions say the current water
prices are low but careful consideration is needed before raising them.

VietNamNet/Viet
Nam News