Regulation on the Administration of the License for Water Drawing and the Levy of Water Resource Fees (2017 Amendment)

Regulation on the Administration of the License for Water Drawing and the Levy of Water Resource Fees (2017 Amendment) Regulation on the Administration of the License for Water Drawing and the Levy of Water Resource Fees (Promulgated by the Order No.460 of the State Council on February 21, 2006; and amended in accordance with the Decision of the State Council to Amend and Repeal Certain Administrative Regulations on March 1, 2017) 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 water administrative departments of the people's governments at the county level or above shall, in light of the powers for graded administration, take charge of organizing, implementing, supervising and administering the institution of license for water drawing. The drainage basin authorities established by the water administrative department 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 authorization of the water administrative department of the State Council, take charge of organizing, implementing, supervising and administering the institutions in charge of the license for water drawing within their respective jurisdictional scopes. The water administrative department, the administrative department of public finance and the price administrative department 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 for domestic life, or as drinking water of 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 or work 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 to 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 competent 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 water administrative department or the drainage basin authority of the local people's government at the county level or above for archival filing; the water drawing prescribed in Item (5) shall be subject to the consent of the water administrative department or the drainage basin authority of the people's government at the county level or above. Article 5 A license for water drawing shall first satisfy the needs of the urban and rural inhabitants in their domestic 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 duties prescribed in the present Regulation, determine the specific sequence on the various items of water use as prescribed in the preceding paragraph within the same drainage basin or region when the actual situation so requires. Article 6 A 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 water administrative department 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 administrative department of 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 water administrative department of the people's government of the province, autonomous region, or municipality directly under the Central Government where the water intake is located. The water administrative department 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 water administrative department 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. The argumentation report shall include the source of water drawing, the rationality of using water, and the impacts to the ecology and environment, etc. Article 12 An application letter shall include the following particulars: (1) name and address of the applicant; (2) reasons for application; (3) starting time and term of water drawing; (4) purpose of water drawing, amount of water for drawing, amount of water consumed in each month within the year, and so on; (5) water source and place of water drawing; (6) means of water drawing, way of measurement, and water saving measures; (7) location for the withdrawal of water, main pollutants contained in the water that is withdrawn, and the sewage treatment measures; and (8) other particulars prescribed by the water administrative department of the State Council. Article 13 The water administrative department or the drainage basin authority of a local people's government at the county level or above shall, within 5 working days as of receipt of the application for water drawing, examine the application materials, and handle the matter in light of the following different circumstances: (1) If the application materials are complete and meet the legal requirement, and fall within the scope of acceptance by the present authority, it shall accept the application; (2) If the submitted materials are incomplete or the contents of the application letter are not clearly filled, it shall notify the applicant to make supplements or corrections; and (3) If the application does not fall within the scope of acceptance by the present authority, the present authority shall inform the applicant to file an application to the authority with the power of acceptance. Chapter III Examination of and Decisions on the License for Water Drawing Article 14 The licenses for water drawing shall be subject to hierarchical examination and approval. The water drawing under the following different circumstances shall be subject to examination and approval of the drainage basin authorities: (1) drawing water from the trunk streams of the Changjiang River, the Yellow River, the Huaihe River, the Haihe River, the Luanhe River, the Zhujiang River, the Songhua River, the Liao River, the Jinsha River and the Han River, from the Taihu Lake, or from the designated reaches of other rivers or lakes covering different provinces, autonomous regions, or municipalities directly under the Central Government, which is above the limitation; (2) drawing water from designated reaches of international trans-border rivers or international border rivers, which is above the limitation; (3) drawing water from inter-provincial border rivers or lakes, which is above the limitation; (4) drawing water from two or more provinces, autonomous regions, or municipalities directly under the Central Government; (5) drawing water for large-scale construction project approved or ratified by the State Council or the investment administrative department of the State Council; (6) drawing water within the riverways (reaches) or lakes under direct administration of the drainage basin authorities. In the preceding paragraph, the designated reaches, the limitations, and the riverways (reaches) or lakes under direct administration of the drainage basin authorities shall be prescribed by the water administrative department of the State Council. The water drawing under other circumstances shall be subject to examination and approval of the water administrative department of the local people's government at the county level or above pursuant to the approval power prescribed by the people's government of the province, autonomous region, or municipality directly under the Central Government. Article 15 The approved water allocation scheme or concluded agreement shall be the basis for determining the control of the total amount of water licensed for drawing within a drainage basin or jurisdiction. Where no water allocation scheme is made or no agreement is concluded for a river or lake covering different provinces, autonomous regions, or municipalities directly under the Central Government, the index on controlling the total amount of water licensed for drawing in the provinces, autonomous regions, or municipalities directly under the Central Government concerned shall be proposed by the drainage basin authority in consultation with the water administrative departments of the people's government of the provinces, autonomous regions, or municipalities directly under the Central Government concerned according to the water resource conditions of the drainage basin, t......