Legal Issues on the Agricultural Water Charges

Abstract

Water charge is a system that charges the utilization of water in financial terms which support water allocation by recovering its costs and help create an incentive to reduce the excessive use of water. In Thailand, the agriculture sector is considered to be the largest water user. However, they were exempted from water charge. Most of the laws related to the water use exclude the agriculture sector from water charges, or unable to enforce its provision of agricultural water charges. Moreover, the exemption of water charges provided by Thai laws tends to focus on the types of water use rather than the amount of water used. The foreign laws related to the agricultural water charges, such as England, the United States, China, and Brazil, provide the collection of the agricultural water charges based on the volumetric quantity of water utilization. Furthermore, it tends to separate the insignificant water use from other users by providing a volumetric limit for insignificant use which does not require the collection of water charges. The study of those foreign laws would be the example for the effective implementation of the agricultural water charges in Thailand, to exempt the insignificant and small amount of the agricultural water use from water charges, and apply the water charges based on the suitable level of water use.