Regulation on the Administration of the License for Water Drawing and the Levy of Water Resource Fees

Regulation on the Administration of the License for Water Drawing and the Levy of Water Resource Fees

Order of the State Council [2006] No. 460

February 21, 2006

The "Regulations Governing the Licensing for Water Drawing and the Levying for Water Resource Fees", which was adopted at the 123rd executive meeting of the State Council on January 24, 2006, is hereby promulgated, and shall come into force on April 15, 2006.

Premier of State Council, Wen Jiabao

Appendix: Regulations Governing the Licensing for Water Drawing and the Levying for Water Resource Fees

Chapter I General Provisions

Article 1 The present Regulation is formulated in accordance with the "Water Law of the People's Republic of China" for the purpose of strengthening the administration and protection of water resources, and promoting the conservation and reasonable exploitation and utilization of water resources.

Article 2 The term "water drawing" as mentioned in the present Regulation shall refer to the drawing of water resources directly from rivers, lakes or underground with the use of water drawing engineering structures or facilities.
Any entity or individual that draws water resources shall, except for the circumstances prescribed in Article 4 of the present Regulation, apply for a license certificate for water drawing, and pay water resource fees.
The term "water drawing engineering structures or facilities" as mentioned in the present Regulation shall refer to water gates, dams, channels, artificial watercourses, siphons, pumps, wells and hydropower stations, etc.

Article 3 The competent departments of water administration of the people's governments at the county level or above shall, in light of the scope of powers by graded administration, take charge of organizing and implementing, supervising and administering the license system of water drawing.
The drainage basin administration authorities established by the competent department of the water administration of the State Council at the localities of important rivers and lakes determined by the state (hereinafter referred to as the drainage basin authorities) shall, in accordance with the present Regulation and upon the authorization by the competent department of the water administration of the State Council, take charge of organizing and implementing, supervising and administering the license system of water drawing within their respective jurisdictional scopes.
The competent department of water administration, the administrative department of public finance and the competent department of price of a people's government at the county level or above shall, according to the present Regulation and their scope of administrative powers, take charge of levying, administering and supervising water resource fees.

Article 4 Under any of the following circumstances, the party concerned does not have to apply for a license certificate for water drawing:
1. A rural collective economic organization or any of its members uses the water in the pond or reservoir of the said organization;
2. A small amount of water is drawn as drinking water for family life, or livestock or poultry under sporadic or enclosed breeding, etc.;
3. The water must be drawn (discharged) for responding to temporary emergencies in order to guarantee the engineering production safety of underground structures such as mines, etc.;
4. The water is drawn for responding to temporary emergencies in order to eliminate the harms endangering public safety or public interests; or
5. The water must be drawn for the use of temporary emergencies in order to fight an agricultural drought or maintain ecology or environment.
The limitation for drawing of a small amount of water as prescribed in Item (2) of the preceding paragraph shall be set forth by the people's government of the province, autonomous region, or municipality directly under the Central Government; the water drawing as prescribed in Item (3) or (4) shall be timely reported to the competent department of water administration of the local people's government at the county level or above or the drainage basin authority for archival filing; the water drawing prescribed in Item (5) shall be subject to the consent of the competent department of water administration of the people's government at the county level or above., or the drainage basin authority

Article 5 A license for water drawing shall first satisfy the needs of the urban and rural inhabitants in their living use of water and give concurrent consideration to the agricultural, industrial, ecological and environmental need for water as well as to the needs of navigation.
The people's government of a province, autonomous region, or municipality directly under the Central Government may, upon scope of power prescribed in the present Regulation, determine the specific order sequence on the various items of water use as prescribed in the preceding paragraph within the same drainage basin or region according to the actual situation. .

Article 6 Actualizing the license for water drawing must conform to the water resource comprehensive planning, the drainage basin comprehensive planning, the medium and long-term planning for the supply and demand of water and the functional division of water, and be in compliance with the water allocation scheme approved in accordance with the "Water Law of the People's Republic of China". If no water allocation scheme is formulated, the license for water drawing shall be in compliance with the agreement concluded between the relevant local people's governments.

Article 7 To grant a license for water drawing, the principle of giving overall consideration to surface water and ground water, and the principle of finding more water sources while saving water with priority given to water saving shall be adhered to, and the control of total amount combined with the quota-based management shall apply.
The total amount of water consumed upon approval for water drawing within a drainage basin shall not exceed the utilizable amount of water resources of the drainage basin concerned.
The total amount of water approved for drawing within a jurisdiction shall not exceed the water amount allocated by the drainage basin authority or the competent department of water administration at the next higher level for drawing within the jurisdiction concerned; among which, the total amount of ground water approved for drawing shall not exceed the exploitable amount of ground water within the jurisdiction concerned, and shall meet the requirements of the planning on the exploitation and utilization of ground water. For making the planning on exploitation and utilization of ground water, opinions shall be solicited from the competent department of state land and resources.

Article 8 The license for water drawing and the levy and management of water resource fees shall be in compliance with the principles of publicity, fairness, justice, high efficiency and facilitating people.

Article 9 Any entity or individual is obligated to conserve and protect water resources.
The people's governments at the county level or above shall commend and award the entities and individuals who have made prominent contributions in conserving and protecting water resources.

Chapter II Applications for Water Drawing and Acceptance of the Applications

Article 10 An entity or individual that applies for water drawing (hereinafter referred to as the applicant) shall file an application to the approval organ having the approval power. While if it/he applies for utilizing more than one water source, and there are different approval organs regarding the licenses for drawing of water sources, it/he shall file an application to the approval organ at the top level.
Where the scope of power to grant the license for water drawing remains with the drainage basin authority, the application shall be filed to the competent department of water administration of the people's government of the province, autonomous region, or municipality directly under the Central Government where the water intake is located. The competent department of water administration of the people's government of the province, autonomous region, or municipality directly under the Central Government shall, within 20 working days as of receipt of the application, propose its opinions, and transmit the opinions along with all the application materials to the drainage basin authority. The drainage basin authorities shall, after receipt of the opinions and application materials, handle the matter in accordance with Article 13 of the present Regulation.

Article 11 To apply for water drawing, the applicant shall submit the following materials:
1. the application letter;
2. relevant statements having an interest relationship with the third party;
3. relevant archived materials in case of a project for archival filing; and
4. other materials prescribed by the competent department of water administration of the State Council.
Where water drawing is needed in a construction project, the applicant shall, in addition, submit the water resource argumentation report on the construction project, which is worked out by an entity having the eligibility for water resource argumentation of construction projects.
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