Reporting on a number of major issues in explaining, receiving and revising the draft Law on Water Resources (amended), Chairman of the Committee on Science, Technology and Environment (SCENT) Le Quang Huy said that at the 25th Session, the Standing Committee of the National Assembly (SCENT) gave opinions on a number of major issues in receiving and revising the draft Law on Water Resources (amended) and assigned the SCENT to preside over and coordinate with the drafting agency and relevant agencies to study, receive and revise the draft Law.
Regarding the scope of the draft Law, the Standing Committee of the Committee for Science, Technology and Environment said that the revised Law on Water Resources follows four major policy groups, ensuring comprehensive water management from protection, development, regulation, distribution, to exploitation, use and prevention of harmful effects caused by water.
Chairman of the Committee for Science, Technology and Environment Le Quang Huy speaks at the conference. Photo: Doan Tan/VNA
To avoid overlap and inherit the current Law on Water Resources, the draft Law only regulates the most general issues on water exploitation and use in terms of ensuring water resources. Water exploitation and use in each specific field and scope will be implemented according to the provisions of specialized laws.
In addition, mineral water and natural hot water have special physical and chemical properties and are of higher economic value than ordinary water, so they require strict and tight management as a resource or mineral of high economic value; currently, this type of water is being managed stably according to the law on minerals. Therefore, these two types of water should not be added to the scope of the Law to avoid disruption. This is also the option the Government submitted to the National Assembly.
Regarding water resource protection and water resource restoration, there are suggestions that in addition to pre-control management through licensing tools, it is necessary to strengthen post-control through standards and technical regulations to suit the "dynamic and soft" management objects; add a principled provision on surface water resource protection. In response to the opinions of National Assembly deputies, the draft Law has added provisions on management content according to standards and technical regulations. At the same time, a separate Article 22 is added to regulate the protection of surface water resources.
Regarding the regulation and distribution of water resources, the draft Law has added provisions on the basis, principles, and solutions for regulating and distributing water resources through engineering and non-engineering measures; added provisions on forecasting meteorology, hydrology, and trends in different periods of the year to proactively develop scenarios for regulation and distribution, ensuring harmony of interests of water exploiters and users; added responsibilities of ministries and provincial People's Committees in river basins in regulating and distributing water resources.
Regarding the exploitation and use of water resources, the Standing Committee of the Committee for Science, Technology and Environment found that, in order to avoid overlap in the management of domestic water, the Law on Water Resources only stipulates a number of principles on management requirements and ensuring the quality and quantity of water sources for domestic use in Articles 27 and 44 of the draft Law. Specific contents on the exploitation of water for domestic use will be adjusted, supplemented and completed according to specialized laws on water supply and drainage.
There are opinions that water supply for daily life needs to be regulated closely to reality. In addition to centralized water plants, it is still necessary to combine with small-scale water supply stations to ensure suitability for rural conditions; separate the two subjects of water resource exploitation and use to have appropriate management regulations.
In response to the opinions of National Assembly deputies, the draft Law has been supplemented with regulations on domestic water supply at both centralized and decentralized scales in Clause 3, Article 44 and separates the content of regulations on exploitation and use of water resources, as shown in Section 2, Chapter IV of the draft Law.
In addition, the Standing Committee of the Committee for Science, Technology and Environment also received and explained the opinions of the National Assembly deputies related to the use of circulating water, water reuse; Economic tools, policies and resources for water resources (Chapter VI); On the responsibility of state management of water resources and on river basin organization.
Commenting on Article 22 of the draft Law on Water Resources (amended), delegate Nguyen Anh Tri (Hanoi National Assembly Delegation) said that it is necessary to protect underground water sources to ensure water security. In addition, more attention should be paid to protecting and preventing the depletion of surface water sources, and at the same time, attention should be paid to protecting the safety of dams and reservoirs, increasing the load-bearing capacity of dams to ensure the safety of people in flood-affected areas...
Delegate Nguyen Anh Tri said that Article 22 should be divided into two parts. One is to manage the water source protection corridor and prevent water source pollution. Two is to proactively prevent degradation and depletion, actively preserve surface water sources such as building dams, storing rainwater, etc.
In addition, the delegates also suggested that the Drafting Committee of the Law Project should amend Clause 2 of the Draft Law in the direction of ensuring the flow of water, clarifying the increase in the carrying capacity of water sources. On the other hand, it is necessary to emphasize the value and ensure the dam in water storage, hydropower, flood prevention, flood discharge; build many locations for water discharge, flood discharge scattered in many directions, many regions, many provinces...
Commenting on the scope of the law, delegate Nguyen Thi Thuy (National Assembly Delegation of Bac Kan Province) said that this is an issue with many different opinions, focusing on whether hot water and natural mineral water should be included in the scope of the law. The delegate expressed the view that the scope of the Water Resources Law should not be expanded to include hot water and natural mineral water. In essence, hot water and natural mineral water are minerals, originating from endogenous activities underground, with mineral composition and chemical and physical properties, and original purity that is stable over time.
Due to the natural nature of these two water sources, the delegate said that in the world and in Vietnam today, these are considered minerals and are being managed, exploited, and operated effectively in serving the development of medicine as well as the socio-economy. Because these are identified as minerals, hot water and natural mineral water are currently regulated by the Mineral Law, and are being managed, protected, and exploited according to strict procedures as for other minerals. Even at the exploration stage, there must be an exploration license, during the exploration process, a protective belt must be established, and when exploiting, the subjects must meet many groups of specific conditions and criteria such as prioritizing the use of local labor resources, having the responsibility and obligation to coordinate and support the locality in building welfare works, etc.
In addition, if hot water and natural mineral water are included in the scope of regulation of the Law on Water Resources and the management mechanism of the Law on Water Resources is applied, it will not be suitable in nature and will also cause the risk of losing this resource with high economic value.
Concluding the discussion, Vice Chairman of the National Assembly Nguyen Duc Hai stated that full-time National Assembly deputies highly appreciated the sense of responsibility and efforts of the agency in charge of the review, the drafting agency, and relevant agencies who closely, regularly, and effectively coordinated in the process of researching and perfecting the draft law, soliciting opinions from all levels and sectors, and absorbing opinions from deputies and the National Assembly Standing Committee to perfect the draft law submitted to the Conference.
Vice Chairman of the National Assembly Nguyen Duc Hai said that the delegates agreed with many contents that had been received and revised, and at the same time contributed many more opinions to complete the draft law, specifically on the scope of the law, compatibility, synchronization in the legal system, water resource distribution, registration of licenses for exploitation and use of water resources, water reuse, water resource conservation, etc.
The Vice Chairman of the National Assembly requested the Secretary General of the National Assembly to have a report summarizing all the opinions of the delegates to send to specialized agencies for research and acceptance based on the participation of the National Assembly delegations and functional agencies. The Standing Committee of the National Assembly will coordinate and direct the agency in charge of the review and the drafting agency to seriously accept the discussion opinions, continue to complete the draft law in accordance with regulations, and submit it to the National Assembly for discussion, consideration and approval at the 6th Session.
According to VNA/Tin Tuc Newspaper
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