According to the Government 's Report, after more than 10 years of implementation, the 2012 Law on Water Resources has contributed to creating positive changes in the awareness and actions of the whole society regarding the protection, exploitation and use of water resources. Water resources have been managed and used more effectively and sustainably, bringing revenue to the State budget.
The objective of the draft Law on Water Resources (amended) is to complete a synchronous and unified legal corridor, ensuring transparency to be able to exploit resources to the maximum, allocate them reasonably and use them effectively; ensure national water security; focus on preventing, controlling and restoring degraded, depleted and polluted water sources; clearly define the responsibilities for water resource management and the responsibilities for managing water exploitation works at both central and local levels to overcome overlaps and legal conflicts.
In addition, the Law will aim to manage water resources on a digital technology platform, unify databases, build a set of tools to support real-time decision-making, reduce management and operation personnel, and state investment costs; reduce business conditions for organizations and individuals. At the same time, it will gradually shift from management by administrative tools to management by economic tools through policies on: water prices, taxes, fees, charges, fees for granting water resource exploitation rights; promote socialization...
The draft revised Law on Water Resources consists of 83 articles and is structured into 10 chapters. Compared to the 2012 Law on Water Resources, the draft Law does not increase the number of chapters (in which 9 articles are kept unchanged; 59 articles are amended and supplemented; 15 new articles are added) and 13 articles are abolished. Regarding the scope of regulation, the provisions in the draft Law are basically the same as the 2012 Law.
Accordingly, this law regulates the management, protection, exploitation and use of water resources, prevention, control and overcoming of consequences of damage caused by water in the territory of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.
Groundwater and seawater in the exclusive economic zone and continental shelf of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam and mineral water and natural hot water are not subject to the scope of this Law.
At the discussion session, the National Assembly Deputies basically agreed with the Submission, the report on the review of the draft law and the report on the acceptance of opinions at the Group of the drafting agency and the assessment of the draft Law on Water Resources (amended) which had been carefully prepared, widely consulted with affected subjects and relevant management agencies; referred to international laws and experiences in water resources management; and seriously accepted many review opinions and comments.
Speaking at the meeting, Delegate Trang A Duong - National Assembly Delegation of Ha Giang province highly appreciated the activeness of the drafting agency in receiving and fully explaining the opinions of the Delegates at the Group discussion session.
Commenting on the Draft Law, the Delegate said that, regarding the scope of regulation in Clause 2, Article 1 of the Draft Law, it is stipulated that natural hot water and mineral water are not within the scope of regulation of this Law, so natural hot water and mineral water are within the scope of regulation of the Mineral Law. However, these two types of water are water resources, existing in underground aquifers, with the ability to regenerate unlike other types of minerals. Therefore, the Delegate proposed to stipulate that natural hot water and mineral water are within the scope of regulation of the Law on Water Resources to ensure unified management; at the same time, it is necessary to specifically stipulate that these two types of water are managed, exploited, and used effectively to serve the needs of the people, tourism, etc.
Regarding the explanation of the term in Article 5, Delegate Trang A Duong also proposed to clarify the concept of "water resources development" because to develop water resources, it is necessary to protect and develop forest resources (water resources), ensure the safety of reservoirs, and build multi-purpose water storage works... In addition, there must be solutions to link water resources planning with forest development planning, land use planning, socio-economic development planning, security and defense planning, so the Delegate proposed to clarify this concept.
Also according to Delegate Trang A Duong, to ensure national water security, focusing on preventing and restoring degraded, depleted and polluted water sources, the Draft Law has provisions from Article 23 to Article 35, which stipulates the responsibilities of a number of ministries, branches and localities. However, water resources management is a multi-sectoral, comprehensive management, with many factors and causes leading to degradation, depletion and pollution of water sources such as: urbanization, industrial wastewater, use of pesticides... Therefore, the Delegate suggested that the drafting agency continue to study and specify the responsibilities of ministries, branches, localities, organizations and individuals related to the protection, prevention and restoration of degraded, depleted and polluted water sources.
Delegate Duong Tan Quan (National Assembly Delegation of Ba Ria - Vung Tau Province) expressed his approval of the necessity to develop the Law on Water Resources (amended) for the reasons mentioned in the Government's Submission No. 162/Tr-CP dated April 28, 2023, in order to complete a synchronous and unified legal corridor to maximize the exploitation of natural resources, allocate them reasonably and use them effectively, ensure national water security, clearly define the responsibility for water resource management and the responsibility for managing water exploitation works at both central and local levels; at the same time, contribute to unifying the database, reducing human resources for management, operation, and state investment costs...
Delegates proposed to clarify the impact of ensuring water security; socialization of the water sector; financial issues on water resources and protection of water resources, prevention of harmful effects caused by water; thereby proposing amendments and supplements to policies.
Regarding the general provisions on exploitation and use of water resources at Point a, Clause 1, Article 42 of the draft Law, the Delegate believes that if only based on the conformity with local planning, it is not enough, not ensuring strictness and synchronization. Therefore, it is proposed to study and supplement the investment and construction of water exploitation and use works for purposes that must be consistent with regional planning, provincial planning, river basin master planning and other specialized technical planning. This is to ensure more specific and strict exploitation and use of water resources through comprehensive master plans of competent agencies from the central to local levels...
Concerning the State's policy on water resources (Article 5), delegate Nguyen Van Thi - National Assembly Delegation of Bac Giang province, delegate Nguyen Thi Viet Nga - National Assembly Delegation of Hai Duong province expressed their high agreement with the draft Law which added the provision: "The State has a mechanism to encourage organizations and individuals to invest in research and application of advanced science and technology to manage, protect, exploit, use water resources economically and effectively; treat wastewater to meet standards and technical regulations for reuse, treat salt water and brackish water into fresh water". This is a very necessary policy, in the world, water reuse has been used quite commonly for many different purposes including: agriculture, industry, urban areas, etc. In Vietnam today, there are still quite a lot of fresh water sources, however, the situation of decreasing water levels in some rivers; depletion of groundwater resources; The drought in the Central region, salinity in the Mekong Delta... are posing the need to use water more economically and effectively, using water in a circular economic approach; diversifying water sources is extremely necessary; the state needs to have appropriate policies to encourage research and investment in this field.
Regarding the policy of payment for forest environmental services, the Government's 2012 Water Resources Law Implementation Summary Report also pointed out: "Policies related to the allocation of revenue from water exploitation and use in downstream localities to pay for upstream localities in protecting and developing forests and aquatic habitats have not been focused on; funding to support forest planting and protection is not allocated, but is re-regulated from downstream beneficiary localities". Therefore, delegate Nguyen Van Thi - National Assembly Delegation of Bac Giang province requested the drafting agency to study and have specific regulations on payment for forest environmental services related to the protection and development of water resources, ensuring that organizations and individuals maintaining, protecting and developing upstream aquatic habitats receive appropriate payments from downstream beneficiary organizations and individuals.
Delegates suggested that there should be specific regulations on the responsibility of organizations and individuals using water from rivers, reservoirs, and dams in the downstream area to contribute funds to pay those who work to protect and develop forests in the upstream area to create water resources.
Speaking to explain and clarify a number of issues of concern to delegates, Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Dang Quoc Khanh thanked the responsible and dedicated contributions of National Assembly delegates. The drafting agency will fully absorb and synthesize the comments to complete the draft law.
Minister Dang Quoc Khanh affirmed that the amendment of the Law on Water Resources aims to institutionalize the Party's major policies on management and use, especially water security in the context of climate change having a great impact on Vietnam. The amendment of the law also helps to proactively store water, ensure sufficient water, and provide water for daily life and production.
Explaining the issues raised by delegates, Minister Dang Quoc Khanh said that the drafting agency will continue to review solutions for scientific and economical water use, and approach water resource circulation. Regarding the delegate's proposal to add the scope of regulation for hot water and mineral water, the Minister said that this content has been stipulated in the Law on Minerals; for groundwater under the exclusive economic zone, the drafting agency will study, absorb, and work with relevant agencies to review this content.
The drafting agency will also study and specify regulations on water resource management for fresh water, surface water and brackish water; specify more clearly solutions for preventing and overcoming the consequences of water-related harm; review and supplement some specialized terms to ensure completeness, consistency and ease of understanding; study and supplement 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, and the Ministry of Industry and Trade, etc.
In his closing remarks, Vice Chairman of the National Assembly Nguyen Duc Hai stated that 20 delegates had expressed their opinions during the discussion, 2 delegates debated, and 22 delegates registered but did not speak, requesting that their opinions be sent in writing to the Secretariat for full synthesis. The Minister of Natural Resources and Environment reported and clarified a number of issues of concern to the delegates.
Through discussion, delegates agreed on the need to amend the Law on Water Resources to overcome the shortcomings and limitations of the current law, institutionalize the Party's policy on protecting and using water resources to ensure water security, safety of dams and reservoirs, proactively and actively store water, regulate to ensure sufficient water for daily life, production and life, implement solutions to save water, reuse water, apply science and technology in water resources management and development. Delegates also contributed many valid opinions on specific provisions that need to be carefully studied to complete the draft law.
After the meeting, the National Assembly Standing Committee will direct the verification agency to coordinate with the drafting agency and relevant agencies to study, absorb and fully explain the opinions of the Delegates at today's discussion session and the discussion session in the Group to complete the Draft Law on Water Resources (amended) to submit to the National Assembly for approval at the 6th session.
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