Minister Dang Quoc Khanh clarifies issues of concern to National Assembly deputies regarding the draft Law on Water Resources (amended)

Minister Dang Quoc Khanh clarified issues of concern to National Assembly deputies regarding the draft Law on Water Resources (amended).

On behalf of the drafting agency, Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Dang Quoc Khanh thanked the National Assembly Standing Committee; the National Assembly's Committee on Science, Technology and Environment, localities, and National Assembly Deputies for contributing ideas to the draft Law on Water Resources (amended) so that the drafting agency could synthesize and absorb strategic, macro-level contents that are close to real life, thereby perfecting the draft Law to submit to the National Assembly.

Minister Dang Quoc Khanh agreed with the National Assembly deputies on amending the Law on Water Resources to institutionalize the Party and State's new viewpoints, guidelines and policies on water resources management and protection, and especially ensuring national water resources security in the context of climate change that has been causing droughts, floods and seawater intrusion in our country.

Minister Dang Quoc Khanh said that the drafting agency will absorb the opinions raised by the delegates to review the draft Law more closely to control the issue of effective water use, water circulation, and have policies to regulate water resources to solve the problem of water shortage in the dry season and water retention in the rainy season to ensure effective water resource management for socio-economic development.

Minister Dang Quoc Khanh talked with National Assembly delegates on the afternoon of June 20.

For the content group on “underground water and seawater in the exclusive economic zone, continental shelf”, “mineral water, natural hot water”… the drafting agency will continue to research experts, appraisal agencies… to ensure consistency and synchronization with the relevant legal system.

Regarding regulations on water resource management and use, in addition to freshwater resources, brackish water and salt water should also be considered natural resources for economic development. Therefore, Minister Dang Quoc Khanh said that the Law will institutionalize these contents to strengthen the management and effective, economical and sustainable use of water resources. As well as more clearly regulating solutions to prevent and overcome the consequences of damage caused by water; reviewing and supplementing some specialized terms to ensure completeness, consistency and ease of understanding; researching and supplementing functions on flood prevention, urban flood control and prevention; management responsibilities, decentralization, and separation of state management between the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the Ministry of Industry and Trade, etc.

In addition, we will continue to absorb and perfect regulations on principles of management, protection, exploitation and use of water resources to ensure the most effective results, "especially from the fact that we base on the national socio-economic master plan, regional planning, and provincial planning, we will implement strategic water resource planning and ensure the most effective results" - Minister Dang Quoc Khanh said.

Regarding the content related to water resources restoration, especially the task of restoring "dead rivers" that delegates are interested in, the Minister said that, in addition to continuing scientific and technological research on flood prevention, control and drainage, ministries, branches and localities need to have a coordination mechanism to restore and protect the flows. At the same time, it is necessary to attach responsibility to water resource management and environmental protection. Also related to the issue of coordination between localities in water resource management in river basins, Minister Dang Quoc Khanh added that more than 60% of Vietnam's water resources flow from abroad, so the draft Law will provide regulations on these contents so that there will be good coordination between localities and central agencies.

Overview of the meeting on the afternoon of June 20 discussing the draft Law on Water Resources (amended) on the afternoon of June 20

Regarding the content of collecting public opinions related to planning as well as projects related to water resources, delegates suggested that the draft Law should limit the number of times of collecting opinions, ensuring the stability of people's lives. Minister Dang Quoc Khanh said that the drafting agency will issue more specific and clearer regulations and will have instructions on collecting public opinions so that the collection of opinions is most objective and democratic, ensuring that people will both participate and collect opinions but also participate in inspection and supervision to avoid projects polluting water sources, affecting people's lives.

Regarding all the opinions of the National Assembly deputies, Minister Dang Quoc Khanh said that the drafting agency will continue to study and absorb the opinions in an open-minded spirit, and will try its best to synthesize the most universal, strategic, and directional contents to complete the draft Law.

Source