Expectations for major decisions

This is a draft law that is not only expected by the business community but also of interest to State agencies at all levels because of the expectation of perfecting the legal system on water resources management in the context of the need to strengthen water security, overcome shortcomings and problems in water resources management and the requirement of international integration.

Mobilizing the enthusiasm and intelligence of experts in amending the Law

According to Mr. Chau Tran Vinh - Director of the Department of Water Resources Management, in the process of developing the Law on Water Resources (amended), as the drafting agency, the Department of Water Resources Management organized many working sessions, directly exchanged with international experts from organizations such as WorldBank, AFD, KOICA, IUCN, JICA... to better understand the management model, regulatory context, development level, and implementation practices of policies in advanced countries in the world , as well as countries with similar conditions to Vietnam.

The National Assembly's Committee on Science , Technology and Environment conducted a preliminary review of the draft Law on Water Resources (amended).

Specifically, the drafting agency has studied the experience of state management of water resources in the strengths of countries around the world through the support of international experts such as Australian experts on scarcity and regulation, allocation of water resources; Dutch experts on water storage, water source and groundwater protection corridors; World Bank experts on water economics ; French experts on integrated river basin management; Korean experts on river improvement and restoration, information and data bases; American experts related to the content of riverbed, bank and beach protection; Italian experts related to the management and operation of water reservoirs, Finnish experts related to groundwater, etc. At the same time, many working sessions and seminars have been organized with domestic and international experts, the Vietnam Federation of Commerce and Industry to give comments on each content of the Draft Law.

Along with that, the Draft Law on Water Resources (amended) has been sent by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment to collect comments from ministries, branches and localities; publicly posted on the Government's electronic information portal and the Ministry's electronic information page to collect wide comments from people and businesses in accordance with regulations. On that basis, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment has received 94 documents and comments (20 comments from ministries and ministerial-level agencies, 63 comments from provincial agencies, 10 documents from associations and large water exploitation and use enterprises and 1 document from the Government's electronic information portal).

Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Dang Quoc Khanh particularly emphasized: The development of the Law on Water Resources (amended) is an important political task, aiming to institutionalize the Party and State's new viewpoints, guidelines and policies on water resources management and protection and ensuring national water resources security. Therefore, the Minister suggested that the drafting agency should study the opinions of National Assembly deputies to complete the draft Law on Water Resources (amended), on the basis of which the draft Law on Water Resources (amended) will resolve practical difficulties and overlaps between the Law on Water Resources and other laws to unify the investigation, management, exploitation and use of water from the central to local levels, and unify the management of water resources.

In particular, to serve the review, the Standing Committee of the National Assembly's Committee on Science, Technology and Environment has organized many field surveys in localities related to the operation of hydropower plants and clean water plants - places directly affected by the use of water resources; organized workshops in the three regions of the North - Central - South and organized many consultation seminars with experts and scientists to mobilize and promote the role and intelligence of those with practical experience in the field of water resources to participate in contributing opinions to complete the Law project; organized to widely collect opinions from relevant agencies, organizations and the Nationalities Council, the National Assembly's Committees on the content of the Law project.

This is probably not a very new way of doing things, because when building any important Law, ministries and the Standing Committee of the National Assembly will also organize surveys and widely collect opinions from organizations, businesses and people, especially when the field of water resources is a large field, has a profound and direct impact on the rights and interests of each citizen and water business because water is a particularly important resource, an essential component of life and the environment, deciding the existence and sustainable development of the country.

In particular, with the current strong socio-economic development, along with the increasing increase in water use activities and the severe impacts of climate change, many challenges have been posed in the management and sustainable protection of national water resources.

Need to continue expanding the scope of feedback

After a wide consultation with experts, scientists, managers, people and businesses through many direct and online methods, voters and National Assembly deputies were once again given their opinions on the Draft Law on Water Resources (amended) on the National Assembly forum. The ongoing 5th session of the 15th National Assembly has devoted a lot of time to this draft. On June 5, 19 groups with nearly 500 National Assembly deputies presented hundreds of comments to the Draft Law.

Deputy Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Le Cong Thanh affirmed: The viewpoint of building the Law on Water Resources (amended) is to institutionalize the viewpoint that water resources are public assets owned by the entire people and managed by the State. Water resources must be the core in building economic and social development plans, population plans, and plans for sectors and fields. At the same time, inherit the effective provisions of the Law on Water Resources 2012; abolish inappropriate provisions; update, amend and supplement current regulations accordingly.
The Draft Law on Water Resources (amended) consists of 88 articles and is structured into 10 chapters. Compared to the 2012 Law, the Draft Law does not increase the number of chapters (in which 10 articles are kept; 62 articles are amended and supplemented; 16 new articles are added) and 08 articles are abolished.

And on June 22, the Draft Law will be presented to the hall for comprehensive comments. The Drafting Committee and the Government will also have the opportunity to clarify issues that have many inconsistent opinions and still have many concerns such as: the scope of the Draft Law; basic investigation, strategy, planning of water resources; protection of water resources and restoration of water resources; regulation, distribution, exploitation and use of water resources; prevention, control and overcoming of consequences of damage caused by water; economic tools, policies and resources for water resources...

Immediately after the June 5 meeting to collect comments from 19 groups on the draft Law on Water Resources (amended), the Department of Water Resources Management promptly compiled the opinions of National Assembly deputies by issue group, and at the same time seriously accepted and explained many important contents raised by National Assembly deputies.

However, with a law that has a profound impact on social life like the Law on Water Resources, it is necessary to have more attention from the Government and the drafting agency to promote policy communication, and at the same time, to collect more widely the opinions of the people to have more profound, intellectual and comprehensive contributions to thoroughly resolve the problems that are still stuck in management practice. Because if land resources are said to be the "value of life", then water resources are the "quality of life". Whether the quality of life is guaranteed or not depends on whether the management and allocation of water resources are reasonable and scientific or not.

Although we know that all comparisons are lame, with the importance of water resources in social life, especially under the profound impact of climate change that has made precious water resources increasingly depleted and difficult to restore, we need more and more voices and dedicated contributions from all classes of people, so that when the Law is promulgated, it will create an important resource that truly improves the quality of life of all people.

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