General provisions on declaration, registration and licensing of exploration, exploitation and use of water resources

What are water resources?

Pursuant to the Law on Water Resources 2023 (taking effect on July 1, 2024), water resources include surface water, groundwater, rainwater and seawater.

- Surface water means water existing on the surface of the mainland or islands.

- Groundwater means water existing in underground aquifers on the mainland, on islands or beneath the seabed.

General provisions on declaration, registration and licensing of exploration, exploitation and use of water resources (Internet image) 

General provisions on declaration, registration and licensing of exploration, exploitation and use of water resources in Vietnam

Pursuant to Article 52 of the Law on Water Resources 2023, general regulations on declaration, registration and licensing of exploration, exploitation and use of water resources are as follows:

(1) Organizations and individuals exploiting water resources for domestic activities, agricultural production, aquaculture, industrial production, waterway traffic, hydropower, irrigation, sports, tourism, business, services, source creation, saltwater intrusion prevention, inundation control, landscape creation and other purposes must obtain a water resource exploitation permit corresponding to the type of water source to be exploited as prescribed in clause (2), except for the cases specified in clauses (3), (4) and (5); in the case of groundwater exploitation, a groundwater exploration permit must be obtained before constructing a work.

(2) Water resource exploitation permits consist of:

- Surface water exploitation permit;

- Groundwater exploitation permit;

- Seawater exploitation permit.

(3) An organization or individual is not required to declare or license the exploitation of water resources and register the exploitation and use of water resources in the following cases:

- Exploit water for cultural activities, religious activities, practices of folk beliefs, fire preventing and fighting, national defense and security purposes, plant watering and road cleaning for public purposes;

- Exploit surface water on a small scale to be used for agricultural production and aquaculture;

- Exploit surface water on a small scale to be used for purposes other than those specified in points a and b of this clause and point dd clause 5 of Article 52 of the Law on Water Resources 2023;

- Exploit water for domestic activities in areas in the event of a drought, water scarcity, saltwater intrusion, pollution incident or epidemics announced by competent authorities according to the provisions of law;

- Exploit seawater to be used for saltwater production;

- Exploit seawater to serve activities at sea;

- Exploit seawater on a small scale to be used for production, business, service provision and aquaculture on islands or mainland;

- Use river, stream, canal, ditch and reservoir water surface for aquaculture, business, and service provision on a small scale;

- Dig lakes, ponds, canals and ditches on a small scale to create space to collect, store and convey water, and create landscapes;

- The use of water surface within hydraulic structure protection corridors shall comply with regulations of law on irrigation;

- Other cases prescribed by the Government.

(4) Households exploiting groundwater for domestic purposes must make declaration for management.

(5) Organizations and individuals must register the exploitation and use of water resources in the following cases:

- Exploit surface water on a medium scale to be used for agricultural production and aquaculture;

- Exploit groundwater on a small scale to be used for purposes other than those specified in point a clause 3 and clause 4 of Article 52 of the Law on Water Resources 2023;

- Use groundwater naturally flowing in a mining pit to select ore at the pit or pump water to drain the water naturally flowing into the mining pit;

- Exploit seawater on a medium scale to be used for production, business, service provision and aquaculture on islands or mainland;

- Small and medium-sized river, stream, canal and ditch damming works for the purposes of source creation, saltwater intrusion prevention, inundation control and landscape creation;

- Use river, stream, canal, ditch and reservoir water surface for aquaculture, business, and service provision on a scale other than that specified in point h clause 3 of this Article; use reservoir surface water for solar power production;

- Dig lakes and streams; dig lakes, ponds, canals and ditches to create space for water collection, storage and conveyance, and create landscapes on a scale other than that specified in point i clause 3 of Article 52 of the Law on Water Resources 2023

(6) The competent authority specified in Article 53 of the Law on Water Resources 2023 shall issue a water resource exploitation permit that specifies quotas for water resource exploitation regarding organizations and individuals in the cases specified in clause (1); confirm the registration of exploitation and use of water resources regarding organizations and individuals in the cases specified in clause (5).

(7) If an organization or individual explores or exploits groundwater within a hydraulic structure protection corridor, the licensing authority shall obtain written opinions from the regulatory body managing such hydraulic structure before licensing the exploration and exploitation of groundwater.

(8) Opinions from representatives of residential community and from related organizations and individuals about impacts of water exploitation structures shall be obtained as follows:

- The investor in the construction of a water exploitation structure that has a great impact on socio-economic development activities and people’s lives in the locality shall cooperate with the local authority to obtain opinions from representatives of the residential community and related organizations and individuals about impacts of the project's plan to exploit and use water resources; consolidate, receive and explain in writing and send them along with the water resource exploitation licensing dossier;

- The project investor must announce and publicize information about details about exploitation of water resources by the project and potential impacts prior to the project execution;

- Funding for obtaining opinions shall be covered by the project investor.

Mai Thanh Loi

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