Last decade marked an epoch of a deep environment-economic crisis. In water resource management, this crises was caused by a totalitarian economic model, outdated conceptual approaches and principles of water resources management and absence of state policy of water use.

All programs of environmental revival in the river basins  must be implemented in two stages. At the first stage of program implementation, when no heavy investment is expected in water sector, it is necessary to concentrate on management improvements and to create favorable legislative, organizational and economic environment . It is also important to prioritize the measures of emergency prevention. At the second stage, efforts must be made to implement the activities aimed at preservation and rehabilitation of natural environment.  In so doing, one must remember that the improvement of water quality within one section of a river will not settle the problem for the whole river, in other words,  it is necessary to adopt a basin approach to the development of all water protection programs.

The overall goal of this project is to analyze the existing laws and standards regulating  water usage in the Republic of Belarus  and to develop conceptual approaches to the management and improvement of water quality of the Dnipro.

Legal regulation of use and protection of water bodies based on basin principle of water management and unrelated to the administrative boundaries plays an important role in maintaining, renewal and improvement of water quality in the Dnipro basin. Legal provisions must create most favorable environment for management and improvement of water quality.

1. THE EXISTING LAWS AND REGULATIONS THAT GOVERN WATER QUALITY MANAGEMENT AND  USE OF WATER IN THE REPUBLIC OF BELARUS

Following are the main principles of the state environmental policy in Belarus:

-  State ownership for all kinds of natural resources with the possibility of their transfer to legal entities or persons in permanent or temporary use (in certain cases land may be given into private property);

-  Payment for the use of natural resources;

-  State control over the state of natural environment and its efficient use;

-  Compulsory environmental expert examination of all industrial construction projects under development, construction and reconstruction;

-  Financial, administrative and criminal responsibility for the violation of environmental legislation and payment of damage at a violator’s cost.

State environmental policy is carried out in the following major areas:

-  improvement of the environmental legislation;

-  introduction of economic levers of management and control over the use and protection of natural environment;

-  creation of an integrated system of funding the environmental activities;

-  improvement of the system of institutions of environmental management and control;

-  implementation of environmental training program of personnel and program of enhancement of environmental culture of/in community;

-  development of international cooperation and use of international experience in combating environmental problems.

The major areas of state environmental policy are outlined in the Conception of the State Environmental Policy of the Republic of Belarus (approved by Belarusian parliament on September 6, 1995), the 2001 – 2005 National Action Plan of the Republic of Belarus for rational use of natural resources and environmental protection (approved by Resolution of Council of Ministers  # 912 of June 21, 2001), the National Strategy and Action Plan of the Republic of Belarus for biodiversity conservation and sustainable use (approved by Resolution of Council of Ministers  # 789 of June 26, 1997) and by the National Sustainable Development Strategy of the Republic of Belarus (NSDS) (approved by Resolution of Council of Ministers # 255 of March 27, 1997).

From the environmental perspective, sustainable development is the environmental protection and rational use of natural resources, conservation of biodiversity, environmentally safe usage of biotechnologies alongside with tackling of social and economic problems. Taking of the measures outlined in the NSDS will provide for positive development of three most important and interconnected factors (man - economy – environment), which  ensure stable functioning, balanced interaction and development of the social, economic and environmental spheres.

It is significant that the NSDS does not assign the environmental factor paramount importance; this strategy is based on the premise that the rational use of natural resources and environmental protection must facilitate the development of social and economic spheres of human activities. The latter, however, must develop in such a way and to such am extent that to conserve and improve the state of natural environment in every possible way and to ensure the efficient and economical use of natural resources.  People must have high living standards and healthy environment to live in and be sure that future generations will live in the environmental conditions which are will not be worse than the current ones.

In general, the implementation of environmental policy in the  Republic of Belarus is provided for by the following legislation:

-  “On environmental protection” (1992, 2002);

-  “On State Environmental Expert Examination” (1993, 2002);

-  “On especially protected wildlife areas and subjects” (1994, 2002);

-  “On tax on usage of natural resources (environmental tax)” (1991);

-  “On waste” (2002);

-  “On protection and use of animal kingdom” (1996);

-  “On protection of atmospheric air” (1997);

-  “On radioactive safety” (1998);

-  “On protection of the population and territories from natural and technogenic disasters”;

-  “On the legal regime on the territories exposed to radioactive contamination as a result of Chernobyl catastrophe” (1999);

-  “On hydrometeorological activities” (1999);

-  “On sanitary-epidemiological well-being of the population” (1993, 2002)

-  “The land code of the Republic of Belarus” (1999);

-  “The code of natural deposits of the Republic of Belarus” (1997);

-  “The forest code of the Republic of Belarus” (2000).

In addition to general laws, which only partly regulate the issues of use, protection and reproduction of water resources (the laws “On environmental protection”, “On state environmental expert examination”, “On tax on use of natural resources (environmental tax)”, “On sanitary-epidemic well-being of the population”, etc.), the use of water resources is regulated by “The Water Code of the Republic of Belarus”, which lays down conditions, rules and procedures of use of rivers, lakes, ponds, springs an other surface and ground water bodies.

There is a number of by-laws on the efficient water use that have been enacted in Belarus.

-  Methods of estimation of the maximum allowable discharges of pollutants with wastewater into the water bodies (1990);

-  Rules of protection of surface waters (1991);

-  Sanitary rules and standards of protection of surface waters from pollution (1988);

-  Instructions on sampling of wastewater and surface water for analysis” (1994);

-  Instructions on the assessment of environmental impacts in process of development of feasibility studies and project documents for industrial construction projects;

-  Regulations on introduction of state water cadastre of the Republic of Belarus (1994);

-  Primary estimate of water use. General provisions (1996);

-  On state program of priority measures to ensure provision of fresh water to the population (1998);

-  Provision on water protection zones of water bodies (1989);

-  Provision  on water protection zones of small rivers (1983)

-  Provision  on water protection zones and riverside areas of large and medium rivers (2002), etc.

Thus, since it gained its independence in 1991, the Republic of Belarus has significantly succeeded in creating and renewing legislative and standard setting framework of protection and efficient use of environment, including water resources. At a national level, Belarus has adopted and regularly updates a sustainable development strategy, which clearly defines national priorities in a number of areas. Belarus has joined a number of international conventions and agreements on  protection of water bodies, including transboundary watercourses, from pollution and depletion.

The Constitution of the Republic of Belarus is the basic source of the environmental law as  many of its articles regulate numerous environmental issues.

Of late, much effort has been made to develop such a legislation,  to establish such standards and to introduce such methods that would ensure the agreement of the economic and environmental interests with the priority human right for healthy environment and favorable living conditions as well as the stability of ecologic systems of the biosphere.

 The environmental responsibility performs three functions:  inducement, compensation, and prevention. Inducement is achieved through a number of economic and legal incentives encouraging the protection of environmental interests; compensation is aimed at recovery of losses of natural environment in kind or in the form of monetary compensations; prevention consists in an  influence upon a covenanter by means of penalties and claims of damages.

Currently, Belarusian legislation provides for the following types of economic responsibility: compulsory payments of enterprises for standard and excessive discharges, for discharges of pollutants into the water bodies and for industrial use of water. 

The analysis of Belarusian water legislation has revealed that it covers almost all problem areas of water use and protection, however it has a number of significant drawbacks: 

-  There is an incongruity between the water legislation and current form of government of Belarus; Belarusian legislation does not incorporate the achievements of European legislation; disagreement between certain laws; insufficient elaboration of laws due to the absence of a well-developed scheme of involvement of qualified consultants including foreign experts into the law making process, declarative nature of certain provisions due to the lack of effective institutional and economic tools of their enforcement;

-  The Water Code specifies economic, organizational, administrative and legal tools of enforcement of water protection requirements, however it fails to regulate  interaction of the administrative and economic tools of water quality management;

-  No differentiation of the rates charged for wastewater drainage depending on the amounts of pollutants contacting in the wastewater;

-  No incentives for industrial enterprises with highly efficient wastewater treatment facilities, which ensure the required levels of wastewater treatment, and for enterprises applying modern technologies, which permit to reduce the discharge volumes of wastewater;

-  Acting Belarusian legislation does not provide for cooperation between local governments located in different oblasts within one river basin;

-  No clear delimitation of the rights and duties between different local governments and the executive and administrative bodies;

-  No methods (principles) of estimation of tax, credit and other privileges granted to legal entities and persons for their introduction of low-waste or wasteless, energy- and resources-saving technologies and other measures of efficient use and protection of water resources;

-  No basin principle of water quality management.

A “Conception of development of water legislation in the Republic of Belarus” must be developed to enhance the effectiveness of the legislative and standard-setting framework as well as of a lawmaking process. Currently there is no such conception, which poses such problems as unmethodical regulation of water issues, doubling of standards, unregulated aspects, disagreement and contradiction between certain provisions of water legislation and between water and other legislation.

The Conception must be based on the Constitution of the Republic of Belarus. It must stay in accord with the National Action Plan for environmental protection, International treaties signed by Belarus and correspond to the socio-economic, demographic and environmental conditions.

The development conception of water legislation must outline the goals, objectives and principles of legal regulation of water issues. Moreover, the Conception must identify a tentative scope of laws and standards regulating water issues in Belarus,  their interrelationship (hierarchic structure of water legislation), major areas and stages of development of water legislation, list (package) and priority (succession) of adoption and amendments of the laws subject to their urgency, and description of the tools of their enforcement (legal, organizational, economic).

It is very important to outline the scope of the issues that need to be regulated, so to avoid the regulating of vital problems only with bylaws on the one hand  and regulating of the of issues within the area of competence of executive bodies with laws. Thus, the Water Code includes a number of blanket standards on certain issues, which must be further regulated with bylaws, chiefly governmental resolutions . At the same time it includes a number of standards which  thoroughly regulate certain aspects, such as, for example, the procedures of transferring water bodies in [private] use, or the procedures of general water use, or rights and duties of water users, which can be regulated with governmental bylaws.

It is necessary to ensure ecologization of water legislation aimed at conservation and recovery of favorable water environment, which is characterized not only by clearness (non-contamination) of water but also by its resource intensity (non-depletion), environmental stability and aesthetical diversity. At present there is no consistency in ecologization of water legislation since the issues of water and other natural resources are not raised within the framework of a integrated approach to the legal regulation of environmental issues (the law “On environmental protection”).

Historically, legal regulation of water issues developed based on the principle of differentiation. In terms of safeguarding water bodies form the adverse anthropogenic impact, the rules and procedures of water use, the rights and duties of water users were determined without due consideration of the environmental requirements. To a certain extent, the environmental requirements were included into the Water Code. However, to achieve ecologization of water legislation it is necessary to amend the Water Code by narrowing down its general provisions to fit specific uses of water bodies. The goals and objectives of laws on protection and use of water bodies must include the goal of conservation and improvement of natural environment in the process of use of water bodies and adjacent areas. Water legislation must be based on the following principles:

-  The ‘triune’ nature of water bodies as natural objects, subjects of economic activities and property;

-  Planned and targeted use of water bodies;

-  Regulation of water use depending on the purpose and  hydrogeological state of water bodies;

-  Agreement of the interests of water users with those of other users of nature and with environmental goals (integrated use of water bodies and adjacent objects of nature).

It is necessary to fill the gaps in the system of specialized bodies managing the use and protection of water bodies. The Ministry of natural resources and environmental protection of the Republic of Belarus performs most of its functions with the assistance of or in cooperation with the other state bodies, such as Sanitary Epidemic Inspection, Agricultural Ministry, etc. At the same time the Water Code does not specify the rules and procedures of work, assistance and cooperation of water management agencies; it fails to clearly delimit between the areas of their competence and authority, which weakens their effectiveness.

It is necessary to continue improving the system of economic measures, which stimulate water protection activities and funding of water protection programs. Belarusian legislation must provide for the possibility of tax, credit and other privileges to legal entities and persons if they apply low-waste or wasteless, energy- and resources-saving technologies and take other measures, resulting in the efficient use and protection of water resources. For the time being paid use of water and public control over the use and protection of water bodies work rather ineffectively.

National Action Plans of the Dnipro basin countries must be developed on a common methodological basis.

The following sections of  this report provide the analysis of legislation and propose  conceptual approaches to its improvement in order to increase the efficiency of the system of water quality management in the Dnipro basin.

2. THE ROLE OF STATE AND LOCAL INSTITUTIONS REGULATING ECONOMIC AND OTHER USES OF WATERCOURSES AND WATER BODIES

Germany, France, the Untied States and other countries have achieved significant success in safeguarding their water resources from pollution. They all have much in common in the organization of their water resources management. At a national level water resources are managed by specialized ministries, federal agencies or departments. Their scope of competence includes the development of national policy for efficient use and protection of water resources; development and implementation of current and long-term plans for water protection activities within the drainage areas of big and small rivers; national programs for improvement of the quality of surface and ground waters; establishment of monitoring systems; development of basic water legislation; review of public complains and proposals  regarding the implementation of water protection activities; development and correction of national water quality standards, etc. The implementation of water protection activities is the responsibility of regional governmental bodies, which are also responsible for the development of regional programs of water use, monitoring of water bodies, water management at a regional level, funding, construction and reconstruction of large plants utilizing water resources.  The scope of activities of local (municipal) governments includes the issuing of licenses for the construction of new plants utilizing water resources, control over the quality of water discharged into rivers and ponds, imposition of fines on the violator of water legislation, etc.

The objective of the Belarusian water legislation is to regulate the terms of water use and protection  in order to satisfy the water needs of enterprises and individuals; to protect water from pollution, littering and depletion; to prevent and relieve the destructive water effects, and rehabilitate and improve the state of water bodies.

As it has already been mentioned, the Water Code and a number of governmental resolutions on water use and protection make up the framework of the water legislation in Belarus. According to Article 3 of the Water Code, all water bodies make up an indivisible water fund. The fund is made up of rivers, lakes, reservoirs, springs, canals, ponds and ground water. In Belarus, water is used on the basis of a usufruct. The usufruct is granted on water bodies that make up the water fund of the Republic of Belarus. The water usufruct can be of several types subject to the following uses of water bodies: satisfaction of public drinking, domestic, medical, recreational, and other needs; agricultural, industrial, energy, transport, fish and other uses (Article 20 of the Water Code). For each of the above uses, the Water Code of the Republic of Belarus lays down the procedures and conditions of usufruct and specifies rights and duties of water users. It distinguishes between general and special water uses. General water use is utilization of water without any special equipment or facilities which may affect the water quality; special water use is utilization of water with the application of such special equipment and facilities or without them, which however affects water quality (Articles 23 and 24 of the Water Code). It also distinguishes between shared and individual, and primary and secondary water uses (Articles 25 and 26 of the Water Code). Water bodies (or their parts) can be given in an individual water use to legal entities or persons only by decisions of sate  institutions. Enterprises, organizations or agencies, which were granted the right for individual use of water,  – the primary water users – are authorized to give permission  to other enterprises, organizations, agencies and individuals for secondary use of water upon the agreement of state agencies regulating use and protection of water resources. The procedures and conditions of giving water bodies in use are different depending on the type of water use. No license is required for general water use. Special water use is regulated by the “Order of issuing licenses for special water use” approved by the resolution of the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Belarus # 669 of May 7, 1999. Licenses for special water use are issued by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection of the Republic of Belarus or its regional bodies on the basis of petitions of water users upon the approval of appropriate state agencies.

Water bodies are given in the individual use completely or partially in compliance with the “Order of giving water bodies (or their parts) in an individual use” approved by resolution of Council of Ministers  # 669 of May 7, 1999. The decision to give  a water body (or its part) in an individual use is taken by a district or city executive and administrative body (or, in some cases, oblast executive and administrative body ). In special cases this decision is taken by the Council of Ministers upon the review of all the appropriate materials at the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection.

Legal protection of water means the total of all legal means aimed to conserve, rehabilitate and improve of the state of water natural resources in water bodies. The Water Code and other legislative acts make up the legal framework for protection of water bodies.

To ensure the effective control over the use and protection of water resources it is necessary to improve the legislation by delimiting between the scopes of authority of  national and local governments and to increase the administrative, criminal and other types of responsibility for violations of water legislation. To this end there has been developed the Conception of improvement of Belarusian legislation on delimitation between the authority of state and local governments in the field of use and protection of water resources.

State management of water resources is the activity carried out by authorized state agencies to ensure the efficient use and protection of water resources and adherence of legal entities and individuals to the provisions of water legislation of Belarus. Article 7 of the Water Code defines the system of state bodies which manage use and protection of water resources:

-  The President of the Republic of Belarus;

-  The Council of Ministers of the Republic of Belarus;

-  Local Deputies’ Councils;

-  Executive and administrative bodies;

-  National body of state management of natural resources and environmental protection (Environmental Ministry), its regional departments, and specially authorized state bodies.

The Council of Ministers carries out water management activities in compliance with the law “On the Council of Ministers and subordinate bodies” of July 7, 1998. Thus, in compliance with Article 6 of this law, Government takes measures for protection and theoretically grounded use of water resources within the limits outlined by the Constitution, the laws of the Republic of Belarus, and decrees of the President of Belarus.

More specifically the authority of Belarusian Government in the filed of  use and protection of water resource is provided in  Article 9 of the Water Code of Belarus, which specifies the following functions of the Council of Ministers:

-  to ensure implementation of a unified policy in this field;

-  to approve state programs for the efficient use and protection  of water resources and to take measures aimed at their implementation;

-  to set limits on the use of water in oblasts and city of Minsk;

-  to direct the activities of state bodies in the field of water use and protection;

The same article provides that the Council of Ministers is authorized to take measures to stop the activities of legal entities, which fail to comply with the requirements of water legislation of Belarus.

At the same time Article 9 of the Water Code of Belarus provides that local Deputies’ Councils, executive and administrative bodies of water use and protection are authorized to restrict, interrupt or prohibit the activities of legal entities or persons failing to fulfill the requirements of Belarusian legislation. In Article 10 of the Water Code (in paragraph 6) the same function is  assigned to the Environmental Ministry. In other words the scopes of authority of Government, Environmental Ministry, local Councils and local executive and administrative bodies in this field are not delimited. That is why it is advisable to delegate this entire authority to local governments bodies, since spatially they are located in close proximity to the subjects of water regulations.

The system of state bodies authorized to manage water resources includes the Environmental Ministry, the Agricultural Ministry and the Health Ministry.

According to Article 10 of the Water Code (paragraph 4), the Environmental Ministry as a state body of  natural resources and environmental protection  is authorized to exercise state control over use and protection of water resources and to administer state environmental expert examination. Article 9 of the Water Code (paragraph 3), which outlines the authority of local governments in the field of water management,  provides that local governments are also authorized to exercise control over use and protection of water resources. Thus, control over use and protection of water resources lies within the scope of competence of both state and local governments. It is advisable to make it sole responsibility of local governments, whereas the environmental expert examination must be the responsibility of the Environmental Ministry departments.

According to Article 10 of the Water Code (paragraph 7), the Environmental Ministry deals with administrative violations in the filed of use and protection of water resource in compliance with the appropriate legislation of the Republic of Belarus.

3. TYPES OF OFFENSE AND DEGREES OF RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE VIOLATIONS OF THE LAWS ON USE AND PROTECTION OF WATER RESOURCES

Types of offense and degrees of responsibility are laid down in the Water Code of the Republic of Belarus.

Following are the reasons for committing environmental offence:

1.  incomplete and imperfect laws;

2.  ineffective economic basis for the observance of legal and environmental rules;

3.  drawbacks in organization and implementation: to many ministries perform different environmental functions, the law does not provide for coordination of their actions;

4.  insufficient level of environmental education.

Violation of water legislation can be of two types:

1. Violation of the property rights for water bodies:

-  unauthorized appropriation of a water body

-  unauthorized water use

-  assignment of the right for water use

-  other transactions violating the property right of the Republic of Belarus.

According to the Water Code all of the above actions are deemed illegal; water bodies, appropriated without the authorization, are returned to their legal owner without any recovery of expenses to the appropriator.

2. Violations of the rules of water use and protection:

-  implementation of the projects subject to state environmental expert examination without a positive decision of commission of experts;

-  pollution and/or littering of water bodies, violation of the rule of maintenance of water protection zones  and riverside;

-  unauthorized implementation of hydrotechnical projects;

-  water collection exceeding the established limits, etc.

There are two types of actions: legal and economic. Economic actions are taken in case of lawful activities of a polluter  to provide chiefly financial incentives for waste reduction. Legal actions are taken in case of illegal activities of a pollutant to bring the polluter to administrative and legal responsibility. Economic responsibility is based on the financial interest of a polluter to reduce or completely remove harmful impacts on the environment . At present, legislation provides for the following types of economic responsibility: compulsory payments of the enterprises for standard and excessive emissions, pollutant discharges into water bodies, and industrial water use.

Legal proceedings for the violations of environmental legislation can be of the following types:

-  administrative;

-  criminal;

-  civil;

-  disciplinary.

The administrative proceedings consist in actions taken by specially authorized bodies or officials to impose administrative penalties on the violators of water and environmental legislation according to the established order. The administrative responsibility is provided for by the  following environmental laws: the Codes of the Republic of Belarus on land, natural deposits, forest and water, the law “On environmental protection”, etc. Its types are specified in the “Code of administrative violations”.

Criminal proceedings are instituted against the offenders guilty of significant damage to the natural environment. The types of crimes are specified in the Criminal Code of the Republic of Belarus as crimes infringing the rules of water use and protection.  Belarusian legislation also provides for responsibility for other violations of the water legislation of the Republic of Belarus.

In addition to the legal responsibility, the violators of laws on water use and protection may bare economic responsibility. Thus, the law “On tax on use of natural resources (environmental tax)” provides for such penalty as the increase of the rates for the discharges of untreated wastewater in excess of the established limits.

A significant gap in the water legislation is lack of a complete list of possible violations in the following fields: use of water, protection of water bodies, use of natural resources, economic activity, management of water bodies, environmental safety, economic tools regulating the use and protection of water bodies.

Following improvements must be made to the Criminal Code of the Republic of Belarus;

-  to expand and more clearly outline the scope of possible subjects of criminal actions and specify their list: environment in general and its elements (water, atmosphere, animals, plants, forests, etc.)

-  to bring into accord criminal and specialized environmental laws, including competent use of specialized terms, expansion of the scope of subjects of the criminal and legal protection;

-  In most of the cases, responsibility for environmental crimes is described in blanket rules: lawmakers widely use the term violation of the rules.  As a result, the problem of unlawfulness of the environmental crimes is settled neither in theory, nor in practice; moreover, it has become even more acute.  In terms of legal practice, the new Criminal Code gives a very complex descriptions of corpora delicti, which makes their interpreting and application very difficult;

-  According to the Belarusian legislation administrative violation is a legal fact entailing possible criminal actions against the violator and determining their type. Abolition of the administrative prejudice will help eliminate the need of distinguishing between criminal and administrative offenses.

Generally, Belarusian legislation specifies practically all types and degrees of responsibility for offenses committed in the field of use and protection of water resources, nevertheless it needs several amendments. 

The Water Code provides for the administrative, criminal and other actions against those guilty of unauthorized appropriation of water bodies, unauthorized use of water and other illegal transactions violating the property rights of the Republic of Belarus for water as well as for other offenses in the field of use and protection of water resources. The administrative actions, specified in the Code of Administrative Offenses, are taken in case of offenses involving the infringement of the state property right in water and offenses involving the violation of the established order of use and protection of water resources.

According to Article 39 of the Code of Administrative Offenses,  pollution and littering of water bodies, violation of the rules of maintenance of water protection zones of rivers, ponds and watercourses, and violation of the water protection rules at water collection areas which entails their pollution, water erosion of the soil and other harmful impacts, are penalized with the fines in the amount ranging from one to 10 minimum wages for individuals and from 3 to 25 minimum wages for administrators. Putting into operation of industrial, municipal or other plants without the installment of facilities or equipment preventing water pollution or littering or harmful impacts on the environment is penalized with the fine of 5 to 50 minimum wages imposed on plant administrators, whereas their putting into operation without the facilities or devices measuring, recording and ensuring rational use of water resources entails fines of 5 to 25 minimum wages imposed on the administrators.

Similar measures are specified for the violations of the rules of water use (collection of water in excess of the established limits, unauthorized implementation of hydrotechnical projects, uneconomic use of water resources, violation of the order of statistical reporting, measuring and keeping initial records of the amounts collected from and discharged into water bodies, damage to water management facilities and equipment as well as facilities and equipment preventing water pollution and littering ( 3 to 10 and  5 to 25 minimum wages). It is significant that the measures provided in the legislation are incommensurable with the losses incurred by the state as a result of breach of rules of water use, pollution or littering of water bodies or damaging water management facilities. Moreover, the administrators on whom the fines are imposed do not take any material losses as they usually pay the fines at the cost of their enterprises, firms, etc. That is why it is advisable to increase significantly the amounts of fines imposed on legal entities.

4. ESTABLISHING MAC FOR THE SUBSTANCES ALLOWED FOR DISCHARGE INTO WATER BODIES AND SEWAGE SYSTEMS

One of the most effective measures to protect water bodies from pollution is to limit the pollutant discharges. This measure impels water users to use water more efficiently, to establish control over the operation of treatment facilities and to specify the composition of city drainage, including quality and quantity of the industrial wastewater.

In Belarus, as a rule, the principal organizations that treats and discharges industrial wastewaters and, consequently, bare the entire responsibility for the waste treatment and discharge are the municipal treatment and water-supply plants.

Establishing of the maximum allowable concentrations of pollutants in wastewater after its biological treatment includes the following.

-  establishing of technologically and economically feasible criteria of sanitary and toxicological properties of organic waste;  

-  technological control over the concentrations of specific ingredients (salts of heavy metals, oils) in the incoming and treated wastewaters;

The criteria of allowable concentrations of pollutants containing in the discharged wastewater after it was treated at a municipal wastewater treatment facilities must specify the amounts (in tons per year) of controlled pollutants (specific ingredients) allowed for discharge within one year.

To assess the environmental effects of the industrial wastewater it is necessary to establish within the monitoring framework technological control over the concentrations of specific ingredients in the incoming and treated wastewaters.

Following is the list of the major standard setting documents establishing the criteria (quantitative and qualitative indices) for the industrial wastewater coming into the city sewage system:

Rules of use of municipal treatment and water-supply systems in towns and cities of the Republic of Belarus (approved by order of the Ministry of Housing and Municipal Facilities # 128 of November 26, 1995)

These Rules establish the procedures of acceptance  of wastewater into municipal sewage systems and regulate the relations between the municipal treatment and water-supply plants, which are a part of the system of Housing and Municipal Facilities Ministry and subscribers (including manufacturing enterprises). The Rules are mandatory for all the subscribers regardless of their departmental affiliation.

When developing local “Rules of acceptance of industrial wastewater into the sewage system of the city N”, local city or district councils must consider the whole range of facts and factors arising from the combined discharge of domestic and industrial wastewaters, such as their differing content and technological feasibility of their joint treatment at municipal treatment facilities.

Rules of acceptance of industrial wastewater into city sewage systems (worked out at the Pamfilov Academy of Municipal Utilities, Moscow, 1998)

The criteria for acceptance of industrial wastewater into city sewage systems must be worked out based on the certification of water-supply and sewage facilities and specifics of local conditions and requirements of protection of surface water from pollution.

General rules of acceptance and discharge of industrial wastewaters by city sewage systems consist in the following:

-  the combined discharge of domestic and industrial wastewaters is appropriate only if there is a need in their joint treatment and if such treatment is feasible at the municipal treatment facilities;

-  discharges of industrial wastewater into the city sewage system must not disrupt its regular mode of operation, or cause the explosive and toxic gases or sediments, or clog the system, or bring in pathogenic bacteria.

These rules outline the general requirements to the composition of the industrial wastewater, which may be accepted into a city sewage system, and consider the whole range of factors, associated with the combined discharge of domestic and industrial wastewaters and their different components, which can not be removed or which produce negative effect on the performance of city treatment facilities.

Given the existing level of industrial development, when the industrial wastewater makes up 60 percent of total drainage arriving at the municipal treatment facilities, and given the joint treatment of domestic and industrial wastewater, it is important to identify the degree of local treatment of industrial wastewater in order to provide technological treatment of the combined wastewater and to ensure that all quality criteria being met.

According to acting “Rules of Acceptance of industrial wastewater” it is  monitored for compliance with 28 criteria, their  list varying from 4-8 criteria (for petrochemical, food, fuel, and transport industries) to 10-18 criteria (for construction, chemical, engineering, wood-chemical and electric power industries).

The control of compliance with the rules of discharge of industrial waste is exercised by the municipal treatment and water-supply plants.

List of maximum allowable concentrations and tentatively safe degrees of impact of hazardous wastes on water bodies used for fishing (1993)

Maximum allowable concentrations of pollutants in industrial wastewater are established for the average monthly wastewater discharges specified in the written requests of manufacturing enterprises which they submit to municipal treatment and water-supply plants.

Sanitary rules and criteria of protection of surface water from pollution # 4630-88 (Health Ministry of the USSR, Moscow, 1988)

Sanitary Rules of Health Ministry establish more than 500 criteria of water quality and MACs for water bodies of recreational and domestic use. This list is more than enough to consider properties of the discharged industrial wastewater.

The EU environmental standards regulate the quality of water, soil, air, noise and food. This, however, does not mean that all EU countries necessarily have similar legislation. Most of them have adopted individual practices ensuring progress in environmental field.

An good example of the surface water protection is the water legislation in Germany.  It consist of the following laws:

-  The law on water management, which covers all continental water bodies (rivers, lakes), surface and subsurface waters (ground wasters) and shoreline  water;

-  The law on fines for water pollution.

This list can be added with the law on detergents, the law on protection of ground water from pollution and general legal regulations of environmental field.

The major legal tool of water management in Germany is issuing of  a permit or concession for water use.

Russia has adopted similar approach to the development of its legal solutions.

The rules of acceptance of industrial waste into city sewage systems, which are now effective in the Republic of Belarus, establish maximum allowable concentrations of pollutants in the industrial wastewater at such a level, which is technologically not feasible.

In the light of the EU experience it is advisable that the standards of maximum allowable concentrations of pollutants in the treated wastewater are made subject to the following two factors:

-  the wastewater treatment technology implemented at specific treatment facilities;

-  the estimated environmental impact of the discharged wastewater (correlation between the volume of the wastewater discharge and the capacity of receiving water body).

Basically, there is no significant difference between the approaches to control over the industrial wastewater discharges into municipal sewage systems that were adopted in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. The fundamentals, which make the basis of the Rules of acceptance of industrial wastewater into city sewage systems had been developed in Soviet times and remained the same although the rules were adjusted to consider state interests.

As a rule the standards of discharges are much higher than the maximum allowable concentrations set for water bodies and for drinking water. Maximum allowable concentrations and volumes of industrial discharges are estimated depending on the criteria of quality of wastewater at the point of its discharge into a water body. That is why treatment of the excess discharges by municipal and local treatment facilities entails significant costs.

The best solution to this problems is to come gradually to meeting of the requirements and at the same time to revise the following issues:

-  to adopt a different approach to the establishing of allowable wastewater discharges and pollutant concentrations at a point of discharge into a catch water body after their treatment at municipal treatment facilities;

-  to increase the efficiency of treatment facilities and to improve the quality of the treated wastewater coming into the city sewage systems and catch water bodies;

-  to change the system of taxes imposed on manufacturing enterprises for discharge of wastewater into water bodies;

-  to change the rates charged for the allowable discharges of industrial wastewater into the city sewage systems.

It is necessary to develop a unified and unchanging list of pollutants and their MACs. This will encourage plants, discharging wastewater into water bodies to strive to achieve them. The protected water bodies (the Braslavsky lakes, lake Naroch, etc) must make an exception, their list being subject to review and approval of state government.  For them, MACs must be established at the same level as for the water bodies used by fish industry.

Installment of the equipment measuring and registering the quality and quantity of wastewater discharged into water bodies by city sewage systems will facilitate the transition from the practice of one-time sampling of wastewater to the practice of average daily sampling, which will lead to a better use of the existing tools of control over the quality of wastewater discharged into water bodies or city sewage systems.

Reaching the required standards of treatment of wastewater of surface-active is currently a problem due to the lack of the law on detergents. The adoption of such a law will make it possible to control the content of hard surface-active substances in the treated wastewater and reach the required quality standards.

Given the existing level of industrial development, when the industrial wastewater makes up 60 percent of total municipal drainage it is important to identify the degree of local treatment of industrial wastewater  in order to prevent the discharge  of excessive amounts of nitrogen and phosphorus into the city sewage system. As a rule the standards for discharges are higher then the MACs established for water bodies and for drinking water.

The best solution to this problems is to come gradually to meeting of the requirements of Sanitary Rules 4630-88 through the increase of the efficiency of treatment facilities and improvement of the quality of the treated wastewater. 

Given the importance of this issue, it is necessary to develop and adopt State program for gradual increase of the efficiency of treatment facilities, which  remove nitrogen and phosphorus from industrial and city wastewater.

In the Republic of Belarus, the Council of Ministers annually approves the “List of environmental tax rates, limits on the extraction of natural resources and maximum allowable emissions (discharges) of pollutants”.

The environmental tax rates in the Republic of Belarus are about 1.5 times higher that the environmental tax rates in Germany. Only for the period of 1999- 2002 the environmental tax rates in Belarus grew almost tenfold. The number of criteria increases every year and currently makes up  30 criteria. Given the degree of concentration of residual pollutant at the point of discharge of wastewater into a catch water body, the burden of environmental tax has become too oppressive. The municipal treatment and water-supply plants tackle this problem by increasing the rates for industrial plants that discharge wastewater with excess concentrations of pollutants.

The rates for wastewater discharges must be calculated on “the polluter pays” basis, which must be laid down in the legislation. It may make sense to differentiate between the classes of treatment facilities according to their carrying capacity and to set the requirements to wastewater composition depending on the class of treatment facilities, as it is a common practice in Germany.

The amounts of payment must be fixed by authorized agencies on the basis of the analysis made by departments of environmental ministry. The law must provide that the money received in the form of payments must be allocated  for the following purposes:

-  funding of the measures aimed at maintenance and improvement of water quality;

-  construction of treatment facilities;

-  construction of catchment reservoirs for storm water and storm water treatment facilities;

-  construction of  silt utilization facilities;

-  research and development of equipment and technologies of water quality improvement;

-  training and professional development of personnel operating treatment facilities and other equipment, which maintains and improves water quality.

It is necessary to adopt a new approach and to assess the impact of industrial wastewater on the quality of the treated discharge into a water body in order to establish standards of quality of industrial wastewater, which comes for treatment together with the domestic wastewater. Since the degree of pollution of wastewater predetermines the cost of its treatment, it is necessary to estimate the cost with consideration of both the volume of discharge and the degree of pollution. 

As a result of installment of the equipment measuring and registering qualitative and quantitative indices of wastewaters, the administrations of a manufacturing enterprise will be forced to approach the environmental problem more seriously.

The establishment of unified criteria for all manufacturing enterprises will make it possible to charge higher or lower rates for the industrial discharges, which differ from the established criteria. The difference between the regular and the increased rates must be paid to the enterprises operating the municipal treatment facilities to cover damage incurred as a result of discharge of wastewater with the excess pollutant concentration. The difference between the regular and reduced rates charged for the discharge of industrial wastewater with pollutant concentration less then the established norm will be kept by enterprises. It must be used to maintain and improve the quality of discharges into municipal sewage system by means of the following:

-  construction of local treatment facilities;

-  constriction of facilities utilizing the production waste;

-  control over water quality;

-  research and development.

5. REGULATION OF WASTE WATER DISCHARGES. DIFFERENTIATION  OF THE RATES CHARGED FOR WATER USAGE

The analysis of the current system regulating the wastewater discharges into water sources in Belarus reveals that in many cases the allowable concentrations of certain ingredients (subject to degree of water pollution upstream of the point of discharge) either significantly exceed MAC or cannot be calculated because of the lack of assimilating capacity of the river. Thus, if a natural concentration is lower than maximum allowable, the norms of wastewater discharge into water bodies of certain categories and sufficient assimilating capacity may several times exceed the established MAC for water bodies used by fish industry. On the other hand, cases are much more frequent when there is no diluting capacity of a water course and standards of wastewater discharges have to be established very high in terms of water quality criteria for specific water uses. These two opposite outcomes frequently apply to one discharge and are different for specific types pollutants.

Thus, in many cases estimates based on the existing standard setting system do not yield the results, which may be adopted as allowable pollutant discharges. 

It is necessary to adopt a theoretically grounded approach to environmental assessment of a region and a river basin, to the assessment of the actual efficiency of treatment facilities and to the estimation of total pollutants coming from all the sources. In practice this approach can be applied only on “the polluter pays” basis.

At present the total of environmental tax  is determined chiefly by the volume of a discharge and the tax rate, which depends on the category of wastewater and its ability to meet the established quality criteria. In practice, the environmental tax rate is fixed on the bases of the data provided by the laboratories of environmental control, which take one-time sampling at the point of discharge and analyze the wastewater.

It is more objective, however, to charge payment based not only on a discharge volume but chiefly on the weight of pollutants containing in the discharge. To calculate the latter, a well known method of calculating the pollutant weight depending on its hazard category in “conventional tons” can be applied.

Another criterion of regulation of wastewater discharges is the feasible at a present level of technological development operation capacity of treatment plants. In this case it is necessary to establish the specific standards for the treatment facilities providing a complete biological treatment and standards for specific cases of deep treatment (after treatment). This standards must be consistent with the factual state of wastewater treatment. It is possible to draw an analogy with the international practice of standardization, where the facilities for removal of biological elements, nitrogen and phosphorus are singled out into a separate group.

The total payments for the use of water resources in the Republic of Belarus account for 0.1% of GDP. Thus, the rate of payment charged for water use is relatively low and is designated to perform mostly fiscal functions. Nevertheless, a mere increase of environmental tax rates on water use is not expedient. The increase of this specific tax without the appropriate revision and adjustment of the whole taxation system will lead to the increase of the prime costs of production. Sharp increase in the environmental tax rates (with consideration of cross subsidies) may worsen the state of the national producers due to the increased price competition.

The system of environmental taxation must be improved by means of differentiation of the rates depending on the conditions of water use.

The environmental tax must promote the efficient use of water resources, reduction of pollutant discharges, and the use of the so-called ‘secondary’ water resources – treated storm water, domestic and industrial wastewater.

The rates of environmental tax on collection of water from natural sources mast be fixed depending on the quality of the collected water. The accessibility of the resource and environmental restrictions of the amounts of collection also must be considered.

The current system of payments for the discharge of pollutants containing in wastewater into natural water bodies is not working efficiently because the tax rates are fixed depending on the category of wastewater (untreated, insufficiently treated, treated up to the standards) and do not depend on the amount of pollutants containing in it and their toxicological hazards. Moreover, the tax rates do not encourage water users to take measures to reduce the pollutant concentration in wastewater. 

Therefore, tax calculated must be based on the following principles:

-  Rates charged for pollution of the environment must encourage water users to take environmental measures, to reduce anthropogenic load on natural water bodies, and to use water resources efficiently;

-  Rates charged for pollutant discharges must be calculated as the total of payments for each specific ingredient or a group of similar ingredients containing in a discharge as specified in the established list. The number of criteria must be limited.

-  Rates must be fixed with regard of local/regional specifics and basin principle of territorial division.

-  Rate calculation procedures must be absolutely simple, logical, well grounded and posing no difficulties for the specialist of manufacturing enterprises and environmental and fiscal institutions.

As an option, it is possible to use the method of calculation based on the assessment of pollutant load with regard of the natural water quality parameters. In certain cases, instead of the natural parameters it is appropriate to use the target quality criteria, which must be achieved as a result of implementation of the program of restoration and rehabilitation of hydro-ecological conditions of water bodies.

The best way to improve the system of licensing of water collection and wastewater disposal is to introduce a basin water management system. The procedure of licensing of ground water collection must include the obtaining of the approval from geological institutions. Licenses for surface water collection and wastewater disposal may be issued by basin agencies reporting to basin committees.

Such basin management bodies may be established in the basins of the major rivers (the Neman, the Bug, the Western Dvina, the Dnipro, the Pripiat). They must develop the water management policy.

Since the existing administrative division of Belarus does not coincide with its geographical division on a basin principle, a mere basin approach may create certain management problems. That is why the most acceptable scenario of the reform of water management system is the combination of the basin approach with the existing administrative division.

In this case, the Environmental Ministry will coordinate the activities of its regional departments and the envisaged basin agencies and ensure their cooperation. At the same time the authority of the basin agencies and the regional departments of the Environmental Ministry in the following fields must be clearly delimited: 

-  control and supervision of the activities of water users, monitoring of water quality;

-  establishing of quotas and issuing of licenses for water use;

-  development of methods of calculation of environmental tax on water use with consideration of basin specifics;

-  establishment of the target criteria of water quality of natural water bodies and development of the related elements of environmental taxation policy in terms of fixing of the environmental tax rates;

-  management of the costs received as environmental tax on water use.

Basin principle of water resources management shall be introduced stage-wise (in order to work out ways of interaction of the basin agencies, the existing departments of the Environmental Ministry and other governmental bodies, manufacturing enterprises and organizations).

Basin committees shall take up the development of general conception of imposing quotas on water collection aiming to minimize the adverse impacts [of water collection] on hydrological regimes of water bodies and general conception of imposing quotas on wastewater discharges aiming to meet the criteria of water quality of natural sources. In addition, to control the wastewater discharges from the municipal sewage systems, basin agencies shall oversee the systems of storm water collection.

Payment rates fixed with consideration of the factor of geographical specifics of catch water bodies, recommended by the basin management agencies, shall become an effective instrument ensuring that the target water quality criteria are met.

6. RATIONING OF WATER USE. EXPERT ASSESSMENT OF WASTEWATER TREATMENT SYSTEMS

An important aspect of minimizing of the adverse impact on water bodies is the decrease in volume of water collection from the natural sources for different purposes.

Since water use and wastewater disposal are two interrelated functions (water disposal is equal to water use minus irretrievable water use and irretrievable losses), the decrease in water use will lead to decrease in water disposal, which in its turn, will lead to the reduction of the load on treatment facilities and thus to the increase in their efficiency and, as a result of it, the increase in water quality.

Under the current economic conditions the issue of decrease in water use and wastewater discharges must be solved based on non capital-intensive measures, such as rationing of water use.

The decrease in water use and disposal may be achieved through the combination of the following two measures:  setting quotas on water use and disposal per unit of product at manufacturing enterprises and measuring and recording of the fresh water consumed and wastewater discharged.

This conception is based on the fact that without one of the above two factors it is impossible to make an objective judgment about the efficiency of water use by an enterprise and to provide a basis for quotas of water use. That is why, in the process of development of conceptual approaches to the improvement of water quality management, rationing and measuring must be viewed as two complementary components that determine the efficiency of use and protection of water resources.

Rationing of water use and disposal means setting of a planned limit for the use of water and disposal of wastewater. In terms of rationing, the factual use of water by a manufacturing enterprise consists of 2 parts – normal and excess - and can be described by the following equation:

               =                                                   +                   

Hence, there are two possible methodological approaches to the setting of the quotas: either to estimate the ‘normal’ part or ‘excess’ part of water consumption. Since these are two independent methods, the first one is recommended for the establishment of the quotas, the second – for the establishment of an expert system of water rationing.

In the former Soviet Union, the quotas of water use and disposals were set according to the first method.  This process was not regulated by water legislation. The quotas were laid down in the industrial methodological documents and were mostly of two types: individual (for manufacturing enterprises) and aggregative (for entire industries).

The individual quotas of water use and disposal determined the amount of water used (disposed) per production unit and with consideration of all water uses (technological, supporting and auxiliary, domestic and drinking uses) and the quality of water used (disposed). The individual quotas were set:

-  to estimate the water needs of a manufacturing enterprises;

-  to ration water supply and wastewater discharge for manufacturing enterprises;

-  to design water-supply and sewage systems of manufacturing enterprises;

-  to control water use and discharge at manufacturing enterprises.

Aggregative quotas of water use (disposal) determined the quantity of water used (disposed) per production unit according to the established aggregative list of products as weighted-mean values of individual quotas and production volumes. The aggregative norms were used to make forecasts and feasibility studies, to design water supply and sewage systems of manufacturing enterprises, and to work out schemes of integrated use and protection of water resources of river basins. The aggregative quotas were used by ministries and departments managing different branches of national economy.

In the Republic of Belarus, rationing of water use was initiated by the adoption of the Water Code of the Republic of Belarus (1998).

According to Article 15 of the Water Code, technological (branch) quotas of water consumption (water use and disposal) are established to assess and ensure the efficiency of water use and protection. These quotas are defined in terms of quantity and quality of water needed for production and the corresponding quantity of wastewater with maximum allowable concentrations of pollutants in it per unit of a major product and raw materials.

It is a rather broad formula, which needs to be further specified. In addition to the above articles of the Water Code and the law “On environmental protection” it is necessary to develop regulations governing the rationing of water use in the Republic of Belarus and to adopt the appropriate Resolution of the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Belarus.

It is advisable to introduce quotas of water use stage wise starting form the most water consuming productions. At the initial stage this measure will make it possible to control the efficiency of water use by water consuming enterprises and to achieve its tangible decrease as well as significant saving of electricity spend on pumping of the excess water.

For all enterprises of different industries, quotas of water use must be set on common methodological grounds. To this end, it is necessary to bring the existing methodology, developed in the former Soviet Union, in compliance with the Water Code and bylaws regulating water use in the Republic of Belarus with consideration of recommendations based on the new approach to the setting of the quotas.

Quotas must be adjusted with a special expert system developed regardless of diverse production technologies and based on statistical analysis of the retrospective data of enterprises on their water use and disposal, production of their main products or raw materials.

Another important aspect of minimizing the adverse impact on water bodies is the increase of the efficiency of treatment facilities.

As it was already mentioned above, the strategic goal of the sate and society is the sustainable development. Working towards this goal, it is necessary to develop and justify a holistic system of approaches to environmental safety, including operational safety of treatment facilities as one of the major sources diminishing the water quality in the  Dnipro River. At present there are no legally imposed general environmental restrictions based on the principles and requirement of environmental safety and sustainable development in the environmental legislation of Belarus.

The practice of imposing restrictions on the use of water resources is in accord with the general principle of balancing the environmental and economic needs.

The schemes of treatment must be chosen depending on the allowable load on a water body, the available material, financial, and technical resources and the criteria of hygienic, fish and environmental damage resulting from the deviation of water quality from the norm. At the same time the environmental legislation must provide for a fundamentally different method of assessing the degree of wastewater treatment   – standards must be established on the basis of the achieved level of treatment technology. This is very important since one of the current objectives of the Republic of Belarus is to develop and implement programs of technical re-equipment and reconstruction of manufacturing enterprises and their continuous modernization on the basis of new technologies.

To define the allowable load on a water body, it is necessary to analyze the quality of its water, to identify and classify all the pollution sources and to assess the impact of each of them on the quality of water. The results of identification and ranking of the pollution sources according to pollution types are used to prioritize water protection measures.

Thus, the two principles of a basin scheme of wastewater treatment are prioritization and comprehensive approach, which consists in both the coverage of all wastewater types and the system of water conservation and water protection measures for wastewater sources.

Increasing the efficiency of local treatment facilities at manufacturing enterprises is currently an issue in the Republic of Belarus, however there are no tools for measuring this efficiency. The only efficiency criterion is the ability of treatment facilities to ensure MAC in the wastewater discharged into municipal sewage systems, or, which is much more rarely, into water bodies used for the purposes of fishing or drinking water supply. This is a valid criterion even in those cases, when it is technologically unfeasible to achieve the required MAC.

Following are the measures to be taken to deal with this issue:

1. To take a complete inventory of all treatment facilities

This is possible to achieve by means of questionnaires and there is sufficient experience in doing this. However whole process of inventory taking of manufacturing enterprises must be set on legal grounds. To this end it is necessary to work out and get approved the registration certificate issued to an enterprise that must be annually renewed and submitted to a basin management agency.

2. To rank enterprises according to the types of pollution, to make long-term plans of reconstruction of  treatment facilities within the Dnipro basin, to set the priorities (because of the limited funding)

Basin management agencies, which are the most interested party in the efficient use of the capital invested in construction and reconstruction of treatment facilities and in the improvement of water quality, will rank wastewater treatment facilities according to  the  types of pollution and will set the priorities in their funding.

We suggest using schemes of wastewater treatment in certain industries worked out within the program of “Use and Protection of Natural Environment” as a tool assisting in identification of the priority areas. As a result of completion of this project, wastewater sources were classified according to the types of waste with regard of the type of an enterprise, pollutant concentrations and costs. The schemes of wastewater treatment  were developed depending on the conditions of discharge of treated waste. In the process of their development the experience in designing of the systems of treatment of municipal and industrial  wastewater was considered. The proposed schemes maintain modern technological and environmental standards of such systems. It is also significant that the available literature provides the description of either methods of treatment or treatment facilities. The proposed schemes describe the entire process of  treatment at an enterprise of selected industry.

3. To establish methodological grounds

Due to the lack of the appropriate standard setting documents it is necessary to develop and get approved a methodology or methodological guidelines for the application of the developed schemes in the analysis of local treatment facilities. If necessary, similar schemes must be produced for the other industries.

4. To provide environmental education and training to the experts and personnel operating treatment facilities

Much attention must be paid to the level of technical knowledge of the specialists conducting expert examination of the construction projects of wastewater treatment facilities as well as the level of technical skills of the personnel attending treatment facilities. The proposed schemes enable specialist to quickly assess the expediency and economic effect of the proposed solutions. That is why it is proposed to use these schemes in a publication of a training and reference manual.

7. ENVIRONMENTAL RISKS AND INSURANCE

The acting environmental legislation and its standards and methods, do not yet fully meet the environmental objectives. For example, Belarus still does not have a legal basis for the application and development of such an effective environmental management practice as environmental insurance.

It is impossible to asses possible negative consequences of a natural disaster or an accident in advance. However, according to the “polluter pays” principle, there are certain legal tools that help to relieve such consequences by getting compensation. Compulsory environmental insurance of potentially harmful enterprises is an effective tool, since the amount of the insurance payments is subject to the environmental activities of companies. Thus, companies are urged to take measures to reinforce the environmental safety and prevent accidents. If a company refuses to carry environmental insurance it can be forced to closure.

In the Russian Federation, the issues of insurance of hydro-technical facilities has also been high on the agenda because of the need to attract private capitals into the environmental field in order to ensure effective industrial and environmental safety of those facilities, to prevent or relieve accidents or damages, and to protect human right for a favorable environment.

In the Republic of Belarus in the shortest possible time it is necessary to produce a package of documents providing for compulsory environmental insurance of potentially hazardous enterprises based on the appropriate experience of the Russian Federation and other countries.

Then, it is necessary to legally regulate the issues of protection of public health and environment in the process of production, use, storage and transportation of pesticides, mineral fertilizers and other chemicals used in agriculture. At the same time it is necessary to make environmental amendments to the acting laws “On environmental protection” and “On industrial safety of hazardous enterprises”.

Alongside with the legislative improvements, it is necessary to continue developing standard setting and methodological documents regulating other fields of use and protection of natural resources. In particular it is necessary to improve the criteria and standards of quality of air and soil, and of control over the disposal and utilization of hazardous wastes.

The basic documents regulating the issues of emergency and accident prevention and relief are the Water Code of the Republic of Belarus and the Law of Belarus “On protection of the population and territories from natural and technogenic disasters.”

An emergency situation is a situation resulting from an accident, catastrophe, natural or other disaster that has caused or may cause human victims, damage to people’s health and natural environment, significant financial losses and harm to people’s living conditions.

Emergency prevention is a system of measures taken in advance to maximally reduce the risks of emergency situations as well as to protect people’s health and to lessen the environmental damage and financial losses in case of emergency situations.

Emergency situations are classified as local, restricted, regional, national and transboundary.

In order to take urgent measures to prevent or relieve natural disasters caused by harmful impact of water as well as accidents at water facilities, the Council of Ministers of Belarus and local executive and administrative bodies set up ad hoc commissions, authorized to take the decisions, which are mandatory for all legal entities and persons. 

The state system of emergency prevention and relief consists of a central governmental body for emergency situations,  other state governmental bodies, local executive and administrative bodies, and companies, institutions and organizations,  which, regardless of their legal status, are authorizes to safeguard the population and territories from the emergency situations.

As for prevention and relief of harmful water effects and consequences of the accidents at water facilities, the Water Code of Belarus specifies that the water users must carry out prevention or relief activities, approved by the local executive and administrative bodies, departments of Environmental Ministry and other state agencies in case of

-  floods, inundations, under-flooding;

-  destruction of the banks, protection dams and other facilities;

-  swamping or salinization of soils;

-  soil erosion, gullies, landslides, etc.

In case of an accident at water facilities, legal entities or persons guilty of the accident must immediately work to liquidate or to relieve its consequences. They  must also inform the appropriate local executive and administrative bodies, departments of Environmental Ministry, state sanitary control bodies, and state industrial and nuclear safety bodies.

In order to reduce the adverse impact of pipelines on water bodies, the law  “On arterial pipeline transport” requires to use the draw-in and other modern technical solutions ensuring environmental safety of water bodies, navigation, preservation of valuable kinds of fish, water plants and animals at the points where pipelines cross water body.

In compliance with the law of the Republic of Belarus “On protection of the population and territories from natural and technogenic disasters”, a national system of reserve stocks of emergency supplies is being currently established. The order of making, using and replenishing these stocks is regulated by the Provisions of the Council of Ministers.

The Resolution of the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Belarus “On the approval of the list of rescue and relief works” defines the list of works aimed at the relief (localization) of hydrodynamic accidents (breaks of dams, weirs, locks) and catastrophic flooding.

The law “On protection of the population and territories from natural and technogenic disasters”, provides that the persons guilty of the law infringement, creation of conditions causing emergency situations or failure to take measures to protect lives and health of people, or other illegal actins bare responsibility in compliance with the legislation of the Republic of Belarus. 

To forecast and urgently prevent the emergency situations, to enhance safety of the population residing within a river basin and to develop feasibility studies of engineering works aimed to reduce damage, mathematic models of water movement and admixture transportation within a system of water bodies is used. Such mathematic modeling helps to define the mode of change in the levels, discharges and concentrations of admixtures within a given system of water bodies. This enables to assess the threat to the population and buildings located in proximity to water facilities and recommend corrective measures.

8. ENVIRONMENTAL CERTIFICATION, AUDIT AND STANDARDIZATION

The national strategy of sustainable development of the Republic of Belarus determines as a factor of sustainable development the implementation of best environment management practices balancing the economic development with environmental needs with consideration of the interests of future generations.

The  need to engage enterprises in the activities ensuring the environmental safety in Belarus is recognized at a state level, to which testify the joint decision of the Environmental Ministry and State Standardization Committee of the Republic of Belarus about the establishment of Environmental Certification Subsystem (Order  # 179/130 of June 15, 1998).

A package of documents providing for the system of environmental certification  has been developed in order to carry out voluntary environmental certification of products and production in compliance with the following legislation: the laws of the Republic of Belarus “On environmental protection”, “On protection of consumers’ rights”, “On certification of products, works and services”;  Resolutions of the Cabinet of Ministers of the Republic of Belarus “On the approval of the Regulations of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection” # 475 of May 13, 1997   and “On the approval of the Regulations of the State  Standardization, Meteorology and Certification Committee of the Republic of Belarus” # 321 of April 11, 1997; state standard of the Republic of Belarus of January 5, 1996 “The national certification system of the Republic of Belarus. General provisions”.

A state policy of sustainable water use that would prescribe the use of economic and administrative tools regulating the impacts on water resources, in particular the environmental certification of water-related economic activities, is needed to increase the efficiency of state water management system on the basis of the basin principle.

Serious damage is caused to the water resource of Belarus as a result of contradiction between the interests of company executives to maximize their incomes at the expense of environment and the effort taken by the state to protect the environment including water resources. The environmental certification of water use and of environmental management systems will help eliminate this contradiction much better than other environmental measures provided for in the Water Code of Belarus.

Environmental audit is the examination of premises, technologies and facilities of an enterprise the main objective of which is to determine the state of the natural components (air, soil, surface and ground water, flora and fauna) and general trends in their state in order to identify the means and methods to reduce pollution.

Environmental audit helps timely identify the problems and reduce future risks. The results of the environmental audit serve the basis for the assessment of the environmental state of the subject enterprise and for recommendations for corrective measures. Environmental audit is the necessity for the enterprises put on privatization sale.

To ensure that all of the above measures are working, it is necessary to complement the existing practice of environmental tax with new standards and methods, that is to develop a package of standard-setting materials including:

-  a regulation governing the environmental audit of water consuming organizations;

-  a methodology of environmental audit of water consuming organizations;

-  a in instruction on procedures of environmental examination of water consuming organizations, etc.

The developed standard-setting and methodological documents and the environmental audit of enterprises will regulate the issues of compliance of water consuming organizations with the requirements of environmental legislation  and in such a way to insure the improvement of the current environmental situation.

The environmental standardization consist in the establishment of standards for the environmental control, assessment of environmental impact of various substances, and technical specifications equipment used to control and prevent hazardous emissions in the environment.

In the developed countries, environmental standardization is viewed as the most effective tool of state policy for the rehabilitation of human habitat and energy-saving and efficient use of the natural environment.

The environmental activities in Belarus are regulated by the interstate standards (the state standards of the former USSR) and the appropriate national standards. However national system of environmental standards lacks the standards of control over water quality. That is why, the approved by the Environmental Ministry “List of measuring methodologies allowed for use at the environmental control laboratories of manufacturing enterprises and organizations of the Republic of Belarus” is used as a standard-setting document. This is a list of methodologies aimed to identify the polluting components of natural and waste waters.

In the near future,  it is necessary to analyze whether the standard methods of control  used in Belarus comply with the international standards and identify the scope of urgent standardization and later on to develop a Unified Environmental Standardization System.

Alongside with the legislative improvements it is essential to continue working on the standard-setting and methodological documents regulating various uses of natural resou