Law of the People's Republic of China on Flood Control (2016Amendment)

Law of the People's Republic of China on Flood Control (2016Amendment) Law of the People's Republic of China on Flood Control (Adopted at the 27th Meeting of the Standing Committee of the Eighth National People's Congress on August 29, 1997; amended for the first time in accordance with the Decision of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress on Amending Some Laws adopted at the tenth meeting of the Standing Committee of the Eleventh National People's Congress on August 27, 2009; amended for the second time in accordance with the Decision on Amending the Seven Laws Including the Law of the People's Republic of China on Ports adopted at the Third Session of the Twelfth National People's Congress on April 24, 2015; and amended for the third time in accordance with the Decision of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress on Amending Six Laws including the Energy Conservation Law of the People's Republic of China at the 21st Session of the Standing Committee of the Twelfth National People's Congress on July 2, 2016) Contents Chapter I General Provisions Chapter II Plans for Flood Control Chapter III Control and Protection Chapter IV Management of Flood Control Zones and of Projects and Facilities for Flood Control Chapter V Flood Control and Flood Fighting Chapter VI Ensuring Measures Chapter VII Legal Liability Chapter VIII Supplementary Provisions Chapter I General Provisions Article 1 This Law is enacted for the purpose of controlling floods, guarding against and mitigating damage done by floods and water-logging, preserving the safety of people's lives and property, and ensuring the socialist modernization drive. Article 2 In flood control the principles of comprehensive planning, overall consideration, prevention first, all-purpose harnessing, and the interests of the part being subordinate to the interests of the whole shall be followed. Article 3 The construction of projects and facilities for flood control shall be incorporated into the national economic and social development plans. The funds for flood control shall be raised in accordance with the principle of combining government investment with rational contributions by beneficiaries. Article 4 Water resources shall be developed, utilized and protected in conformity with the overall arrangement for flood control and in adherence to the principle of deriving benefits being combined with eliminating damage. Rivers and lakes shall be harnessed and projects and facilities for flood control shall be built in conformity with the comprehensive plans for river basins and in combination with the all-purpose development of the water resources in the river basins. For the purposes of this Law, comprehensive plans mean the comprehensive plans for the development and utilization of water resources and for controlling floods. Article 5 Flood control shall be carried out under unified planning and implementation at different levels on the basis of river basins or administrative regions and under a system whereby the management of river basins shall be combined with the management of administrative regions. Article 6 Every unit and individual has the obligation to protect the projects and facilities for flood control and join, in accordance with law, in efforts to control and fight floods. Article 7 The people's governments at various levels shall strengthen the unified leadership over flood control, organize relevant departments and units, mobilize the general public, rely on the achievements in science and technology, harness rivers and lakes in a planned way, adopt measures to reinforce the projects and facilities for flood control, consolidate and increase the flood control capacity. The people's governments at various levels shall organize relevant departments and units and mobilize the general public to achieve successes in flood control and flood fighting and to make good arrangement for rehabilitation and relief after flood and water-logging disaster. The people's governments at various levels shall give support and help to the flood storage and detention basins, giving them compensation or relief in accordance with the regulations of the State, after flood storage and detention. Article 8 Under the direction of the State Council, the water administration department under the State Council shall be in charge of the day-to-day work in the way of organizing and coordinating efforts for exercising supervision over and giving guidance to flood control throughout the country. The river basin authorities set up for the major rivers and lakes, designated as such by the State, by the water administration department under the State Council shall, within the areas under their jurisdiction, exercise the functions and duties of coordinating the efforts for, exercising supervision over and administration of, flood control as provided for by laws and administrative rules and regulations and authorized by water administration department under the State Council. The construction administration department under the State Council and other departments concerned shall, under the direction of the State Council, be in charge of the relevant work for flood control in conformity with their respective functions and duties. The water administration departments of the local people's governments at or above the county level shall be in charge of the day-to-day work in the way of organizing and coordinating efforts for exercising supervision over and giving guidance to flood control within their administrative regions. The construction administration departments of the local people's governments at or above the county level and other departments concerned shall, under the direction of the people's governments at the corresponding levels, be in charge of the relevant work for flood control in conformity with their respective functions and duties. Chapter II Plans for Flood Control Article 9 Plans for flood control mean the overall plans formulated for controlling flood and water-logging disasters in a given river basin, river section or region, including flood control plans for basins of the major rivers and lakes designated as such by the State, for other rivers, river sections and lakes and for regions. A flood control plan shall be subordinate to the comprehensive plan for the given river basin or region. A flood control plan for a region shall be subordinate to the flood control plan for the given river basin. A flood control plan shall provide the basis for the harnessing of rivers and lakes and for the building of projects and facilities for flood control. Article 10 Flood control plans for the major rivers and lakes designated as such by the State shall be formulated, on the basis of the comprehensive plans for the basins of these rivers and lakes, by the water administration department under the State Council in conjunction with the relevant departments and the people's governments of the relevant provinces, autonomous regions or municipalities directly under the Central Government, and shall be submitted to the State Council for approval. The flood control plans for other rivers, river sections and lakes or for regions shall be formulated separately on the basis of the comprehensive plans for river basins or for regions by the water administration departments of the local people's governments at or above the county level in conjunction with the relevant departments and authorities of the relevant regions, and shall be submitted to the people's governments at the corresponding levels for approval and to the water administration departments of the people's governments at the next higher level for the record. Flood control plans for rivers, river sections or lakes covering different provinces, autonomous regions or municipalities directly under the Central Government shall be drawn up by the river basin authorities concerned in conjunction with the water administration departments and the competent departments concerned of the people's governments of the provinces, autonomous regions or municipalities directly under the Central Government where the rivers, river sections or lakes are located. These plans shall, after examination and comment made respectively by the people's governments of the relevant provinces, autonomous regions or municipalities directly under the Central Government, be submitted to the water administration department under the State Council for approval. An urban flood control plan shall be made by the water administration department, the construction administration department and other departments concerned under the mobilization of the municipal people's government, on the basis of the flood control plan for the river basin and the regional flood control plan of the people's government at the next higher level. Such plan, after being approved through the procedure for examination and approval prescribed by the State Council, shall be incorporated into the overall plan for the city. Any modification to the flood control plan shall be submitted for approval to the organ that originally approved the plan. Article 11 Flood control plans shall be made in adherence to the principles of ensuring safety of the vital places while taking into account the other places in general, combining flood control with drought fighting and engineering measures with non-engineering measures, giving full consideration to the regular pattern of flood and water- logging, the relationship between the upper and lower reaches and the left and right banks of rivers and the requirements of the national economy for flood control, and making these plans consistent with the national land plans and the overall plans for land use. In flood control plans the objects to be protected, the objectives and tasks of harnessing, flood control measures and implementation programs shall be defined, the areas of flood basins, of flood storage and detention basins and the areas to be protected against floods shall be delimited, and the principles for the use of flood storage and detention basins shall be laid down. Article 12 The local people's governments at or above the county level of coastal areas under the threat of storm tides shall include storm tide control in their flood control plans, build a strong system of projects for protection against storm tides, including sea-dikes (seawalls), tide-block sluices and shelter forests along the coast, and see to it that design and construction of buildings and structures meet the needs for protection against storm tides. Article 13 The local people's governments at or above the county level of the areas where mountain torrents may cause landslide, collapse and mud-rock flow and of the areas where mountain torrents frequently occur shall mobilize the geology and mining administration departments, water administration departments and other departments concerned to make an overall investigation of the hidden dangers of landslide, collapse and mud-rock flow, delimit the key areas for prevention and control and take measures to prevent and control them. Urban, rural, and other residential areas, and factories, mines and main lines of railways and highways shall be located away from the threat of mountain torrents. Protective measures shall be taken for those already built in areas under such threat. Article 14 The local people's governments of such areas liable to water-logging as flatlands, low-lying lands, low-lying areas in river embankment network, valleys and basins shall formulate plans for the drainage and control of water-logging, mobilize the departments and units concerned to take appropriate measures to keep water-logging under control, to improve the drainage system, to develop different kinds and varieties of water logging-tolerant crops and to take all-purpose measures to control flood, water-logging, drought and saline-alkali. The people's governments of cities shall redouble their efforts to build and manage the pipe networks and pump stations for drainage of flooded districts. Article 15 The water administration department under the State Council shall formulate, in conjunction with the relevant departments and people's governments of relevant provinces, autonomous regions or municipalities directly under the Central Government, plans for harnessing the estuaries of the Yangtze, Yellow, Pearl, Liaohe and Huaihe rivers. Land from the estuaries of the rivers mentioned above shall be reclaimed in compliance with the plans for harnessing these estuaries. Article 16 The land set aside for river regulation in flood control plans and the land within the areas for dikes to be constructed according to the plans may be delimited as planned reserves, after examination and verification conducted by the land administration departments and the water administration departments in conjunction with the authorities of relevant regions and after approval given by the people's governments at or above the county level in line with the limits of authority as prescribed by the State Council. Where the land within the reserves is involved in other projects, the relevant land administration department and water administration department, when examining the matter, shall consult the departments concerned. The planned reserves shall be made known to the general public once they are delimited as such in accordance with the provisions of the preceding paragraph. No industrial or mining engineering facilities which are irrelevant to flood control may be built in the planned reserves mentioned in the preceding paragraph. However, in special cases where industrial or mining projects of the State really need to be built in the land within such planned reserves, an application for approval shall be submitted in accordance with the procedure for capital construction as prescribed by the State and the water administration department concerned shall be consulted. The land within the area for expanding or constructing man-made flood discharge channels set aside in the flood control plans, after examination and verification conducted by the land administration departments and water administration departments of the people's governments at or above the provincial level in conjunction with the departments concerned and the authorities of relevant regions and after approval given by the said governments in line with the limits of authority as prescribed by the State Council, may be delimited as planned reserves to which the provisions of the preceding paragraph shall apply. Article 17 Flood control projects and other water projects and hydropower stations to be built across rivers and lakes shall be constructed in compliance with the requirements of flood control plans. Sufficient storage capacity shall be reserved in reservoirs in accordance with the requirements of flood control plans. The construction entity shall not commence the construction of a flood control project or any other water project or hydroelectric station set forth in the preceding paragraph if it fails to obtain the written consent to the plan in compliance with the requirements of the flood control plan as signed by the relevant water administrative department. Chapter III Control and Protection Article 18 River floods shall be controlled both by storing and discharging them, by bringing into full play the flood passage capacity of river channels and the functions of reservoirs, low-lying land and lakes to regulate and store floods, effectively protecting the river channels, and adopting suitable measures to desilt and dredge at regular intervals so as to ensure smooth passage of floods. River floods shall be controlled with the aim of protecting and enlarging the vegetation including trees and grass in river basins, conserving water and maintaining effective comprehensive control of water and soil conservation in river basins. Article 19 When river channels are regulated and projects for controlling and guiding river flow and for protecting dikes and banks are constructed, consideration shall be given to the relationship between the upper and lower reaches and between......