The Existing Laws and Regulations the Govern Water Quality Management and Use of Water in the Republic of Belarus

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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.