Laws and Regulations Regarding Water and Sanitation In Thailand

โดย ศูนย์บริหารกฎหมายสาธารณสุข

 

          Laws and regulations regarding water and sanitation consists of two groups of legislation. The first group of legislation includes the Enhancement and Conservation of National Environmental Quality Act B.E. 2535 (NEQA), the Public Health Act B.E. 2535, the City Cleanliness and Orderliness Act B.E. 2535 and the Factory Act B.E. 2535. These acts concern directly to protection and control of environmental health. The second group, which govern exercising procedure of the first group of legislation, consist of the Constitution of the Kingdom of Thailand B.E. 2540, the Administrative Process and Procedure Act B.E. 2539, the Determining Plan and Process of Decentralization Act B.E. 2542 and the Official Information Act B.E. 2540. In terms of the first group of the acts, NEQA is the most important legislation concerning the environment which water and sanitation is one part of the environment. However, more specific legislation concerning water and sanitation are the Public Health Act and the City Cleanliness and Orderliness Act, where the Factory Act deals with only one part of water and sanitation - in terms of effluent or emission standards.

 

 

          - Overlapping of jurisdiction among agencies occurred and an overview of law enforcement of water and sanitation is not clear;

          - In execution of the Public Health Act, which gives authority to local administration organization, also has problem. Because the organizations are afraid of losing support from people for the next election; lacking of personal skill to exercise their power; limitations in understanding of technical knowledge in water and sanitation concept and underlying of each acts. Moreover, local organizations exercise the Act as their source of revenues;

          - Attitudes of people and official involved in enforcement of legal measure also affect an execution of the Acts. These include impression of negative side of exercising legal measures (to control their activities rather than to promote their quality of life); police officers and general public put law enforcement concerning water and sanitation at low priority compare to food and drug, crime or traffic problems. Penalties under each Act sometimes are low compare to benefit a business owner gain. Therefore, offenders may enjoy paying fines while continue operating their business;

          - In terms of public participation, the public is not allowed to get involved in the process of enactment and enforcement of legislation. They also limit in learning their rights under each act. A few challenges for the enactment and enforcement of these acts are, firstly due to the Constitution - rights and duties of the Thai citizens have been widely recognized, decentralization to local government is being processed. Secondly, environmental health context has been changed from basic problems to more complex and broader. Institutional change from public sector reform will also influenced, while coordination mechanism among organizations concerned are still unclear. It is concluded that the legal measure is only one type of measure to be employed, a combination of measures including advocacy, economic instruments, clean technology, public works, and integrated planning system should be applied to promote water and sanitation more effectively.