VietNamNet Bridge – The Decree No. 25 on collecting waste water fee for the environment protection promulgated on March 29 stipulates that fee would not be collected from spilling-over rainwater. However, scientists have pointed out that the provision is unreasonable.

Dr. Le Bac Huynh, Former Deputy Head of the Water Natural Resource Management Department, an arm of the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment, has pointed out that it’s necessary to collect rainwater fee.

According to Huynh, spilling-over rainwater can be divided into two kinds. The first one is the rainwater that spills over from people’s houses yards to sewers, from which Vietnam should not collect fee.

However, competent agencies need to collect fee from the rainwater that spills over from industrial zones, material or plant protection chemical storage places. The rainwater, when going through the places, would bring with itself toxic substances and chemicals which would cause the pollution to the environment.

Also according to the expert, in other countries, the rainwater from production workshops has been put under a strict control. Drastic measures have been taken to minimize the volume of water from the places to the concentrated drainage systems.

Experts in recent months have repeatedly rung the alarm bell over the quality of the surface and underground water quality. Water is a kind of fragile natural resources which is a very important element of the environment and prone to injury. The waste water from households and industrial zones has driven many rivers to the death. The To Lich River in Hanoi, which has been receiving the waste water directly without any treatment, is a typical example.

Therefore, it’s necessary to lay down the reasonable policies to control the waste water. “It’d better to collect fees to heighten the people’s awareness on the water source and the environment protection. It’s unreasonable not to collect fee from the rainwater spilling over from production workshops which does not come in-line with the other government’s policies,” Huynh said.

While Huynh has been insisting on the need of collecting rainwater fee, other experts keep doubtful about the feasibility of the plan.

“How can we collect fees from rainwater?” questioned Dr. Nguyen The Chinh, Deputy Head of the Institute for the Natural Resources the Environment Policies.

He believes that fee should be collected only when Vietnam has the concentrated systems for collecting and treating rainwater.

In Japan, for example, the rainwater in cities is collected and treated before it is discharged to the environment. Meanwhile, the current conditions in Vietnam are not good enough to run such systems.

In order to collect fees from rainwater, it’s necessary to prove that the rainwater contains toxic substances after it goes through production workshops or factories. However, Vietnam still does not have the formula to calculate the toxicity concentration in the water.

“When you charge fees on businesses, you need to answer them how high the pollution is, how you calculate to find out the figures,” he said.

Besides, it’s also very difficult to calculate the fees people or businesses have to pay for the waste water. He has warned that Vietnam may have to pay more money to the fee collectors than the sum of fees to be collected.

“We cannot collect fees until we can show convincing arguments for the fee collection,” he said.

Kham Pha