During the press conference held today, October 22, 2013, in his opening speech, the Minister Gheorghe Salaru noted that the new Waters Law would trigger a reform of the water resources management, which in turn, involved reforming of the institutional framework and an integrated management of water resources.
“In developing and promoting the Water Law and the relevant by-laws, we’ve benefitted of support from Millennium Challenge Account, the Swiss Agency for Cooperation and Development and the European Union. Moldova is the first country in the Eastern Europe, Caucasus and Central Asia (EECCA) Region that established a legal framework for river basin management (RBM), replacing the Water Code of the Soviet times. At the same time, Moldova is the second country (after Armenia), to partially harmonize the domestic law on water sector with the requirements of European Union directives in the field,” the Minister of Environment said.
By passing the Waters Law no. 272 of 23.12.2011, Moldova aimed to establish a new legal framework on the management, protection and efficient use of water sources, in line with the European Union laws. The need for a Waters Law is conditioned by the international commitments assumed by Moldova in the waters sector, and their full and efficient fulfillment requires implementation of provisions of documents in the national legal framework, established to provide a stable water management, sustainable management of water sources, in a single and planned system of interrelated actions in the field.
According to art. 62, para. (2) of the Law no.272 of 23.12.2011, the Government had to revise/harmonize its acts with the provisions of this law, to develop and approve the normative acts required for implementation of the law, within 18 months since its adoption. Thus, 16 draft Government decisions for implementation of the Waters Law were developed and approved on September 12, 2013, establishing a strengthened regulatory framework, able to ensure implementation of the Law in a manner consistent with the standards and norms of the European Union.
Besides the regulations introduced by the new law, the model of the common platform for water use authorization is introduced, to allow the establishment of a single desk for the issuance of authorizations for the use of water, created by the eGovernment Center at the initiative of the Compact Program. The common platform for water use authorization is an IT system aimed for the management of processes of receiving, processing applications and issuing environment authorizations for the special use of water. Due to this system, individuals and businesses will no longer face complicated, expensive and long procedures for obtaining authorizations for the use of water. The common platform for water use authorizations is part of activities aimed to improve and upgrade the management of water sources in order to facilitate the implementation of Waters Law, initiated under the Compact Program.
A very important issue to be considered is the exclusiveness of the state’s ownership of surface and groundwater sources. Thus, according to the Waters Law, the state shall establish the legal basis for the management of waters, create the organizational structure of management for the purpose of ensuring rational use of waters, protecting them against pollution, implementing measures to prevent pollution etc.
The Water Law provides mechanisms for managing water resources in the basin districts that will help streamline the actions of the state to prevent further deterioration, to preserve, protect and restore the surface and groundwater sources. The implementation of the law will allow a better understanding of water sources availability by improving the system of monitoring and management of data about the condition of water resources. These provisions will help accomplish the irrigation sector reform and will allow further investments provided by the Compact Program of the US Government for improving the management of water sources and of irrigation systems.
The law also establishes new principles in water resource management: the principle of participation, principle of pollution prevention, the “polluter pays” principle, the principle of precaution and rational use of water sources. At the same time, the law establishes the exclusive ownership of the state over the surface and groundwater resources, providing guidelines for regulating relations related to the use of waters between the state and the water use beneficiaries, as well as between the beneficiaries themselves.
The new law governs the drought management and flood risk with an indication of the water use regime during the officially declared drought period.
IMPORTANT: The hydrographic network of the Republic of Moldova comprises about 3621 water courses with a total length of over 16000 km and an average density of 0.48 km/km2 in the north, up to 0.12 km/km2 on the left bank of Dniester. Besides those mentioned, the hydrographic network includes 3,500 lakes. The flowing waters in the republic are mainly transit rivers. The state borders between Ukraine, Romania and Moldova are marked by the main rivers – Dniester and Prut. During the last 15 years, the use of waters from these sources decreased significantly, particularly for irrigation purposes. Only in recent years this process has been stabilized slightly, at the same time with restoration of the economy, including industry. The main source of drinking water supply in Moldova is represented by underground aquifers from which 100% of the rural population and 30% of urban and 65% of the entire population are provided with water.
