In 2019, the Audit Committee ordered “imposition based on usage by each farm”… 2022 Ordinance Amendment
Administration burden of 1.7 billion won due to lack of meters for each farm… The purpose of water conservation is not maintained.
(Jeju = Yonhap News) Reporter Byun Ji-cheol = Seven years have passed since Jeju Island began revising its fee system, saying it would pass on fees to users for the amount of groundwater used for agricultural purposes to help them conserve water, but it is still unable to charge raw water fees to farmers who use public underground water for agriculture.
This is because we did not have a proper collection system, such as a meter, to measure the amount used by each farm.
As a result, the situation continues where administrative agencies such as Jeju Island, Jeju City, and Seogwipo City are bearing the cost of raw water instead of farmers who actually use the water.
From 2024, when the new fee system was implemented, to August this year, the raw water fee charged for public agricultural groundwater alone amounts to 1.719 billion won.
How has Jeju's agricultural groundwater rate system progressed over the past seven years?
◇ Audit Committee “You have to pay as much as you use”… The ordinance has been changed, but it cannot be imposed on farmers.
The starting point was the result of an audit of the operation status of public agricultural underground water wells by the Jeju Provincial Audit Committee in 2019.
Unlike other regions, Jeju relies on groundwater for most of its agricultural water.
At the time of the audit, of the 4,823 wells for groundwater in the Jeju region, 3,218 were for agricultural use, accounting for 66.7%. The permitted amount of groundwater withdrawal for agricultural purposes was 905,000 ㎥ per day, reaching 56% of the total permitted amount of groundwater withdrawal.
However, farmers using public agricultural tube wells received a full discount on raw water costs no matter how much water they used, and private agricultural tube wells only paid a flat fee of 5,000 to 40,000 won per month depending on the pipe thickness, regardless of the actual amount used.
The audit committee judged that it would be difficult to encourage farmers to conserve groundwater with this rate system.
Accordingly, Jeju Island was ordered to comprehensively review the raw water cost calculation, imposition, collection, and exemption systems to come up with a plan to charge an appropriate fee according to the amount of water used by each farm.
Accordingly, Jeju Island promoted an ordinance revision to reform the agricultural groundwater fee system.
The province submitted an amendment to the groundwater management ordinance to the Provincial Council in 2022, changing the fixed-rate system for private agricultural groundwater to a charging method based on actual usage, and charging raw water fees for public agricultural groundwater, which had been fully reduced.
However, as issues such as the burden on farmers, leaks in the agricultural water supply process, and the ability to properly measure actual usage emerged, the amendment was postponed for review by the Provincial Council's standing committee in February and March of the same year.
After further consultation with farmers' organizations, the province submitted the revised bill again in June of the same year, and the provincial council revised and approved it.
The new raw water fee charging system was implemented in July 2024 after a two-year grace period.
However, even now, more than two years after the system was implemented, farmers who actually use groundwater for public agriculture have not been charged raw water fees according to the amount used.
◇ There is no meter, so I don’t know how much I use… The purpose of saving groundwater is ‘colorless’
The biggest reason is that there are no proper meters to measure how much water each individual farm actually uses.
This is a problem that has been pointed out since the audit seven years ago.
At the time of the 2019 audit, only some of the farmland receiving water from public agricultural wells had meter readings performed normally, and the remaining 75.1% did not have meters or were not metered even if they were installed, making it difficult to check the amount of water used by each farm.
The Audit Committee ordered each farm to properly install and manage meters, but after seven years, Jeju Island is unable to secure accurate statistics on how many meters each farm has installed.
For this reason, raw water fees for public agricultural groundwater are levied not on farmers, who are the actual users, but on administrative agencies that supply water with permission to develop and use groundwater.
The total amount of groundwater raw water charges for public agriculture amounts to 1.719 billion won, including 382 million won in 2024, 795 million won last year, and 542 million won from January to August this year.
During the provincial council's budget deliberation, related budgets were cut, and Jeju City and Seogwipo City once fell into arrears on raw water bills.
Compared to the size of agricultural groundwater in groundwater use in the Jeju region, the proportion of raw water costs is not large.
As of 2026, the total number of groundwater wells in the Jeju region is 4,501, of which 3,064 wells are for agricultural purposes, including 949 wells for public agriculture and 2,115 wells for private agriculture, accounting for 68.1% of the total.
On the other hand, of the total groundwater raw water charges of 15.398 billion won last year, agricultural use accounted for only 934 million won, or about 6.1%.
Drinking spring water was 4.996 billion won, golf courses and hot springs were 4.564 billion won, and general use was 3.412 billion won.
The agricultural groundwater use fee itself is not high.
According to the current Jeju Island groundwater management ordinance, the usage fee for agricultural and fishing purposes is 1% of the raw water supply cost of metropolitan waterworks.
Considering that the raw water supply cost is 233.7 won per ton, the agricultural groundwater use fee is approximately 2.34 won per ton.
The purpose of charging raw water fees for agricultural groundwater is not to place a large economic burden on farmers, but to encourage them to use groundwater sparingly by making them pay costs based on actual usage.
In Jeju, groundwater is a limited water resource that supports life, agriculture, and industry in general.
Since it is not a resource that can be used indefinitely, it is important to have a management system that accurately measures usage and charges costs accordingly.
However, even after the revision of the ordinance, administrative agencies rather than farmers, the actual users, pay for groundwater for public agricultural purposes, making it difficult to expect such water-saving inducing effects.
Actual agricultural groundwater use is also not decreasing.
The average monthly use of groundwater for public and private purposes for agriculture increased from 9.407 million tons in 2024 to 10.35 million tons last year and 11.374 million tons from January to August this year.
However, Jeju Island explains that since agricultural water use is affected by various factors such as rainfall, drought, crops grown, and growth conditions, it is difficult to view the increase in water use as a problem solely related to the rate system.
In fact, the annual precipitation in the Jeju area was 1,929 mm in 2024, which was 115% of the normal amount, but last year it was 1,351 mm, which was only 80% of the normal amount.
The province plans to belatedly begin a basic survey to install meters for each farm.
An official from the Jeju Island Eco-friendly Agricultural Administration explained that while focusing on the integrated and regionalization project for agricultural water, the installation of meters for each farm was relatively insufficient.
In the 2025 budget preparation process, project costs related to meter installation were requested, but were not reflected.
The province plans to survey Gujwa-eup, Jeju City next year on the target of meter installation and management status for each farm, and review ways to expand meter installation based on this.
The core of the 2019 Audit Committee's prescription for agricultural groundwater management was simple.
The goal was to conserve groundwater by having farmers who actually use water bear appropriate costs based on the amount of water used.
Based on this, the ordinance was revised and a new fee system was implemented after a two-year preparation period. However, to date, the system of charging farmers, who are actual users of public agricultural groundwater, according to the amount of usage has not been completed.
While it is not even clear how many meters each farm has installed, the raw water bill levied on administrative agencies has already exceeded 1.7 billion won.
Jeju Island must answer the question of when the ‘prescription’ issued 7 years ago will begin to function properly.
Lee Young-woong, secretary-general of the Jeju Federation for Environmental Movement, said, “We must first establish a foundation, such as installing a meter, so that we can charge raw water fees according to the amount of groundwater used for agricultural purposes. As the importance of groundwater conservation increases due to the climate crisis, we must also follow the principle of saving and conserving groundwater for agricultural purposes.”
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