Implementation of a Basin Management Principles. Investment Policy in a River Basin

Up one level

9. IMPLEMENTATION OF A BASIN MANAGEMENT PRINCIPLE. INVESTMENT POLICY IN A RIVER BASIN

 

Legislative improvements in the field of regional management of use and protection of the Dnipro basin must be made in order to

 

-  ensure basin principle in the management of water quality of the Dnipro basin through the establishment of the appropriate management bodies with the Basis Committee on top. The Basin Committee will be authorized 1)to coordinate the activities of local governments in different oblasts and districts of the basin; 2) to control the work of a Water-Supply Agency (a body responsible for water supply) and give it the appropriate recommendations; 3) to fix the rates of payment for water collection and wastewater discharge; 4) to approve five-year plans of work of the Water-Supply Agency and other water management organizations; 5) to maintain a computer database on basin water economy;

-  to settle the differences between the economic interests and environmental requirements in the field of protection of water resources and to create economic incentive for environmental rehabilitation of the Dnipro basin, that is to establish such conditions of payments, under which polluting water bodies will be loss making;

-  to ensure gradual transition from the resource and energy consuming technologies to resource and energy saving, low-wasted, closed production cycles;

-  to diversify on the basis of a basin-territorial approach the rates of payment for pollutant discharges into water bodies depending on the hydro-ecological state of a river basin;

-  to introduce redistribution of payments for the benefit of the downstream  territories in order to reduce the upstream pollutant impacts;

-  to regard the system of environmental payments for the pollution of a river basin as a measure of economic responsibility for environmental damage rather then penalty;

-  to charge payment both for diminishing of water quality and for changing of water regime within the entire river basin or part of it;

-  to give for awards (privileges) for manufacturing enterprises that have high-performance treatment facilities treating wastewater to the level of maximum allowable concentrations;

-  to charge payment for diminishing of water quality not per volume of the  water discharged but per quantity of the pollutants containing in a discharge;

-  to do agricultural planning with consideration of its possible adverse effect on the nearby water bodies;

-  to consider the adoption of laws on detergents and pesticides;

-  to establish unified system of water management standards, since its current substitutes (MAC, MAD (maximum allowable discharge), Sanitary Rules and Norms, etc.) have different legal force, different areas of application and entail different types of responsibility.

 

The organizational reform of water management in the Republic of Belarus according to the basin principle can be carried out on the basis of the French basin water management system .

 

The foundation of the system of basin water management which is currently use in France is laid by the Law on Water of January 3, 1992. This system is based on the following principles:

 

-  considering of the natural boundaries of major water basins since “water does not recognize the administrative” boundaries;

-  global approach aimed to meet the needs of all consumers regardless of their affiliation  combined with the preservation of water ecosystems;

-  coordination of the activities of state institutions and basin agencies (Basin Committees and Prefectures);

-  full coverage of costs of construction and operation of the systems of collection, supply, distribution and treatment of water, and wastewater discharges by Consumers and Pollutants;

-  long-term planning, which sets priorities among the water management facilities and defines the necessary amounts of funding;

-  delimitation between the authority of state and private organizations and production plants.

 

France is divided into six major “water basin districts”. Prefects - basin coordinators, Basin Committees and Basin Water Agencies perform the administrative functions at the level of each of the six basins. Regional  directorates for environmental protection, agriculture, forestry, equipment, sanitary and technical control and social issues perform the administrative functions at a departmental level. Local governmental organizations and administrative bodies are organized into 22 regions and 100 departments, which untie 36 763 communes. The Interministerial Water Management Committee coordinates the activities of nine ministries: of environmental protection, of foreign affairs, of agriculture, of cooperation, of industry, of research, of transport and of health. Following matters belong to the ministerial level: discussions of draft international conventions, European directives and standard setting documents; financial assistance to rural communes, computer database of water economy of the country, administration of major research projects and programs. Following matters belong to the level of each of the six basins: coordination of the activities of local public services of different basin districts and departments; control over the work of Water Supply Agency according to the recommendations of the Basin Committee, fixing of the rates of payments for water collection and wastewater discharge; approval of five-year plans of work of the Water Supply Agency; computer databases of the basin water economy.

 

Water policy is formulated jointly by the state, local governments and consumers at the four levels: national, basin, sub-basin, and communal. The Water Basin Committee (Basin Committee) is the tool of coordination and strategic planning; it is also called a “water parliament”. Water Agency is technical and economic tools carrying out a unified policy. Being a state institution it develops and implements the policy formulated by the Water Basin Committee.

 

To this end, the agency collects from all water consumers and redistributes two types of obligatory  payments:

 

-  payment for consumption, used to fund quantitative water resource management;

-  payment for pollution, calculated on the basis of the volumes of the discharged water and the quantity of pollutants, used to finance the activities for water quality improvement.

 

These payments are included into water bills, which are sent to subscribers, or the agency collects them directly from the consumers, who take water or discharge it directly into water bodies. Payment rates vary subject to priorities, economic activities and their impact on water resources in compliance with the goals of the general and five-year plans. The collected funds remain within the water sector in the forms of financial assistance or small grants to local governments and industrialists for construction and upgrading of water supply facilities, and especially wastewater treatment facilities.

 

Water agencies (employing the total personnel of 1500, and annual turnover of 2.5 billion euro of financial assistance) do not perform either the functions of water police (this is the authority of state) or those of a customer ordering certain works. Two French companies “General des Eaux” (now “Vivendi Water”) and “Lyonnaise des Eaux” (now “Suez”) are two equal world leaders, which have representative offices in 100 countries of the world. The world leadership of France in the filed of water resource management in major cities of the world accounts for technical competence, business drive and flexibility of contract forms.

 

Similar to other field, in the filed of water supply and wastewater disposal there are various legal forms of organization of cooperation between state agencies and private companies.

 

It is important for state agencies to calculate all the parameters and define who is going to pay for water supply and in what way, who will finance the connection, what will be structure and the level of the rates, compulsory payments and possible taxes as early as at a stage of project development.

 

Legislation provides for the fulfillment and transparency of contract obligations of the governmental institutions and private companies. Private (foreign) companies must annually submit detailed reports. City mayor must publish an annual report of the activities of local water supply and sewage services. Other state agencies ensure the adherence to various national and European legislative acts in this field. 

 

Belarusian legislation on investment into the river basin and its state regulation is made up of the following laws:

 

The Investment Code of the Republic of Belarus (26 July 2001)

On Environmental Protection of the Republic of Belarus

The Water Code of the Republic of Belarus (15 July 1998)

The Code of the Republic of Belarus on Natural Deposits (15 December 1997)

The Land Code of the Republic of Belarus (4 January 1999)

On Drinking Water Supply (29 June 1999)

ON especially protected wildlife areas and subjects (23 May 2000)

The Forest Code of the Republic of Belarus (14 July 2000)

On the Waste (26 October 2000)

On State Environmental Expert Examination (14 July 2000)

 

Belarusian legislation determines investment as a property, including money, securities, equipment and results of intellectual activity, for which the investor has the property rights or any other thing rights as well as the property rights of the investor put to a particular use with the expectation of profit (income) and (or) any other meaningful result. The investment activity is defined as the act of a legal entity or (and) person, or (and) state (administrative districts) of investing money into production (services) as well as any other their use with the expectation of profit (income) and (or) any other meaningful result. The investor is a person (legal entity or a person, state represented by an authorized body or administrative districts represented by authorized bodies) who carry out the investment activity in the following forms: establish legal entities, acquire property or property rights, namely share in an authorized stock, real estate, intellectually property rights, concessions, equipment, other fixed assets. Investor may be national and international.

 

State regulates the investment activity to encourage the investors, to attract foreign investments and to protect the investors’ rights. State guarantees to investors the right for property and other thing rights and protects them by means of compensations for the nationalized or requisitioned property, providing guarantees against illegal actions of state agencies or their officials. It guarantees equity and stability of the rights of investors. State may support the investment projects by granting discounts on tax and customs payments, giving guarantees of the  Government of the Republic of Belarus and centralized investment resources.

 

A comprehensive state expert examination is conducted to make a decision about the support of investment projects. State expert examination is administered by the Economy Ministry in the cases of investment projects, which involve foreign loans or the loans of Belarusian banks on a security of the Government of Belarus, centralized investment resources, state participation in the establishment of an enterprise with foreign investments, individual discounts on tax and customs payments.

 

It is significant that Belarusian laws provide for the discounts on tax and customs payments with the purpose of establishment and development in Belarus of high technology production plants.

 

Annual State investment program provides that the centralized investment resources are allotted from the national budget in the amount of at least 10 percent of total capital investment, fixed by the budget law. The centralized investment resources are either the funds allocated for investment projects or the security of the Government of Belarus for the bank loans provided for a definite term on condition of their repayment.

 

Investments into land deposits, water, forests, land and other objects, which are the exclusive state property or any other form of activity, which is the exclusive right of state, can be realized on the  basis of concession.

 

Concession is the agreement between the Republic of Belarus and the investor on cession for a definite term of the rights for certain activity or property, for which the state has the exclusive rights for a certain compensation.

 

Concession proposals are developed on the basis of the decision of the President of the Republic of Belarus on the need of granting concession for property or activity, which are the exclusive right of state. Government of the Republic of Belarus or its authorized agency develops proposal of concession and concludes the concession agreement. The concessionary is selected on a tender or auction basis. The agreement on concession may be concluded for the term of up to 99 years.

 

Foreign investor have the legal right to carry out any investment activity and establish legal entities with any share of foreign investment, of any organizational type and legal status as well as their subsidiaries and representative offices in the Republic of Belarus.

 

Environmental activities aimed to protect water resources are an essential but separate part of the system economic activities. Their implementation requires labor, material, technical and financial resources as well as planning, setting standards, account and control over the financial resources and assessment of the effectiveness of the obtained results.

 

The specific forms of water protection activities are the routine water protection and water protection measures.

 

The routine water protection is continuously implemented activity aimed to achieve stability (prevent worsening) or improvement of the state of water resources. The routine water protection chiefly involves water protection asserts and, in certain cases, basic production assets used for water protection purposes. The routine water protection does not involve the creation of capital assets.

 

Water protection measures are the activities aimed to significantly improve the state of water resources or to create certain conditions facilitating its improvement.  Water protection measures may result in the creation of capital assets of water protection purpose or direct influence upon the state of water resources.

 

It is important that the amount and structure of the costs spend for water resources protection and their efficiency are assessed correctly not only for the purpose of environmental statistics but primarily for the purpose of development of environmental policy in water sector of economy. This need is dictated by a number of reasons:

 

1) the need to estimate the share of all environmental costs in gross domestic product when drawing up the national and local budgets and working out long-term state programs for environmental protection and efficient water use,

2) the need to encourage  credit policy in terms of investment into protection of water resources;

3) the need to introduce environmental insurance and to carry out environmental certification;

4) the need to propose most efficient taxation policy and  to improve payments for water pollution and their use, etc.

 

The conception of establishment of priorities among the water bodies within a river basin may be based on the following principles:

 

-  the priorities are reviewed within the comprehensive program for rational use and protection of water resources of a river basin based on a targeted planning of activities;

-  as for water protection, the priority is given to that measure, which are most effective in terms of “cost - environmental benefit, water and environmental safety, inconsumable water use for sustainable social and economic development”;

-  as for improvement of public water supply, the priority is given to that measure, which is most effective in terms of “cost – number of people provided with the quality drinking water”;

-  as for institutional improvement of organizational structure of water management, the priority is given to that measure, which is the most effective in terms of “cost – the enhancement of the quality of water supply and water disposal services and effective improvement of management forms, etc.”

 

The decision on specific areas of investment are made transparently after their discussion at sessions of local councils based o the available financial resources and concentrations of the resources. At present the target areas of investment are:

 

-  improvement (modification) of production processes to reduce (eliminate) wastewater discharges into water bodies;

-  construction, reconstruction, upgrade, operation, maintenance and capital repairs of the facilities, stations, plants, and equipment for treatment and after-treatment of wastewaters;

-  construction of the systems of sewers and facilities for collection, transportation and draining of wastewater for its further treatment, utilization and accumulation;

-  maintenance of the legislatively established regime at water protection zones, riverside and shoreline areas and zones of sanitary protection of sites of water collection (implementation of a system of technological, hydro-technical, sanitary and other measures aimed to prevent littering, pollution and depletion of the water);

-  regulation of the river drainage (chiefly of small rivers), cleaning of the river channels and other measures aimed to maintain a special hydrological regime and sanitary conditions of the rivers;

-  repeated use of the discharged and drainage waters and improvement of their quality (accumulating reservoirs, settling tanks, water aeration facilities, pesticides screens, etc.);

-  liquidation of the sources of pollution of ground waters, localization of the ground water pollution;

-  construction, reconstruction, operation, capital repairs of ground and subsoil water treatment plants and facilities, maintenance of the natural level of ground waters;

-  creation and operation of stations, facilities and of specialized network of monitoring wells,  laboratories monitoring water and wastewater;

-  construction, reconstruction, operation, capital repairs of plants and facilities for collection and transportation of industrial and domestic waste, its processing, utilization and safe storage.

 

The increased complexity of water management tasks to be solved a at a national level determines the need to reorganize the existing state institutions and to establish transboundary cooperation in order to unify methods of water quality assessment, relieve the consequences of accidents on transboundary rivers and implement international water management projects. The new agreements on transboundary water bodies usually include a clauses on the establishment of joint management bodies with a wide range of authority.