China's water pricing urged to hold water

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2006-11-18 15:55

"I am wondering the relation between the rise of my water bill and that of the staff salary of water utilities," said Kuang Fei, a 37-year-old civil servant in Beijing. "Although the welfare and hospitality cost are imposed quotas in the regulation, I am afraid those 'swollen costs' are not truly necessary for water supply and maybe shifted secretly to other costs, which in the end are shouldered by us consumers,"he said.

Average wage income of workers in China's monopoly sectors, such as telecom, finance, tobacco and water industries, has reached three times the national average, while non-wage income of workers in these sectors enlarged the gap with the national average up to 10 fold as much, according to the Ministry of Labor and Social Security.

Dr. Shen Dajun, research fellow with China Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Research, agreed that the consumers need transparency for the money collected from their water bills.

"They need to be told that the fees they have paid for treating the wastewater have indeed been used for that purpose and the money to build facilities for the more efficient use of water resources has really been used in that area," he said.

He noted that a good regulation alone would not solve all the problems. An independent auditing is indispensable and cost information should be made available to the public to prevent water suppliers from manipulating pricing, he said.

Ma Jun, an environmental consultant and the author of the book "China's
Water Crisis, believes most people could afford water at a realistic price, and they would use the resource more prudently and efficiently if it came at a higher cost.

But these solutions presuppose vast expenditures of capital, and such solutions "do not automatically address the needs of the poor, who are unable to pay for that capital," he said.

His worry was echoed in the 2006 Human Development Report, which emphasizes an increased financing and a reorientation of public spending to find viable ways of getting potable water to those who can least afford to pay.

The report advocates for all governments to go beyond vague constitutional principles in enabling legislation to ensure the human right to a secure, accessible and affordable supply of water. At a minimum, this implies a target of at least 20 liters of clean water a day for every citizen -- and at a very low price or at no cost for those too poor to pay.

Dr. Li Yuanhua with the Ministry of Water Resources was glad to see 67 million rural populations had been provided with clean water by the end of 2005, with a government assistance of 402 yuan (50 US dollars) for each.

"In 2006, the government plans to invest 12 billion yuan (1.5 billion US dollars) to solve the water shortage problem of more than 29 million rural population. In 2007, the target population is 32 million. In 2015, the situation for all the 379 million rural population who suffered from water shortage will be improved," Dr. Li said.

In the urban areas, the water price may continue to rise by 50 to 100 percent over the next five years to curb the squandering of scarce water resources, according to Qiu Baoxing, vice construction minister.

But Qiu said the rise of water prices would be gradual. He noted that water costs of 5 U.S. dollars per cubic meter in Boston, or 2.5 euros in France, would not work in China.

"People's income in China is very low, and we have to think about their ability to accept (a price rise)," Qiu said. "We are not preparing for a large price increase."

Nevertheless, the work has paid off, at least from a consumption standpoint. Beijing used 4.06 billion cubic meters of water in 2001, but in 2005 the figure dropped to 3.45 billion cubic meters.