(Adopted at the Fifth Meeting of the Standing committee of the Sixth National People’s Congress on May 11, 1984 and promulgated by Order No.12 of the President of the People’s Republic of China on May 11, 1984; amended in accordance with the Decision of the Standing Committee of the Eighth National People’s Congress on Revising the Law of the People’s Republic of China on Prevention and Control of Water Pollution adopted at its 19th Meeting on May 15, 1996)

Contents

Chapter I General Provisions

Chapter II Establishment of Standards for Water Environment Quality and for Discharge of Water Pollutants

Chapter III Supervision and Management of Prevention and Control of Water Pollution

Chapter IV Prevention of Surface Water Pollution

Chapter V Prevention of Ground Water Pollution

Chapter VI Legal Liabilities

Chapter VII Supplementary Provisions

Chapter I General Provisions

Article 1 This Law is enacted for the purposes of preventing and controlling water pollution, protecting and improving the environment, safeguarding human health, ensuring effective utilization of water resources and promoting progress of the socialist modernization drive.

Article 2 This Law applies to prevention and control of pollution of rivers, lakes, canals, irrigation channels, reservoirs and other surface water bodies and of ground water bodies within the territory of the People’s Republic of China.

This Law is not applicable to prevention and control of marine pollution, which is provided for by a separate law.

Article 3 Relevant departments under the State Council and local people’s governments at various levels must incorporate protection of the water environment into their plans and adopt ways and measures to prevent and control water pollution.

Article 4 The environmental protection departments of the people’s governments at various levels shall be the organs exercising unified supervision and management of prevention and control of water pollution.

Navigation administration offices of the communications departments at various levels shall be the organs exercising supervision and management of pollution caused by ships.

Water conservancy administration departments, public health administration departments, geological and mining departments, municipal administration departments, and water sources protection agencies for major rivers of the people’s governments at various levels shall, through performing their respective functions and in conjunction with environmental protection departments, exercise supervision over and management of prevention and control of water pollution.

Article 5 All units and individuals shall have the duty to protect the water environment and the right to supervise and inform against any pollution or damage to the water environment.

Any unit or individual that has suffered damage directly from a water pollution hazard shall have the right to demand elimination of the hazard and compensation for the damage by the polluter.

Chapter II Establishment of Standards for Water Environment Quality and for Discharge of Water Pollutants

Article 6 The environmental protection department under the State Council shall establish the national standards for water environment quality.

The people’s governments of provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government may establish their own local standards for the items that are not specified in the national standards for water environment quality and report the same to the environmental protection department under the State Council for the record.

Article 7 The environmental protection department under the State Council shall, in line with the national standards for water environment quality and the country’s economic and technological conditions, establish the national standards for discharge of water pollutants.

The people’s governments of provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government may establish their own local standards for the items that are not specified in the national standards for discharge of water pollutants. With regard to the items that are already specified in the national standards for discharge of water pollutants, they may establish more stringent local standards than the national standards. All local standards must be reported to the environmental protection department under the State Council for the record.

Those who discharge pollutants into any water body for which local standards have been established shall observe such local standards.

Article 8 The environmental protection department under the State Council and the people’s governments of provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government shall, in line with the requirements of prevention and control of water pollution and the country’s economic and technological conditions, amend in due time their standards for water environment quality and for discharge of water pollutants.

Chapter III Supervision and Management of Prevention and Control of Water Pollution

Article 9 Relevant departments under the State Council and local people’s governments at various levels shall, when developing, utilizing, regulating and allocating water resources, make integrated plans for maintaining proper river flows, proper water levels of lakes, reservoirs and proper ground water tables, in order to retain the natural purification capacity of water bodies.

Article 10 To prevent and control water pollution, it is necessary to make unified plans on the basis of river basins or regions. Plans for preventing and controlling water pollution of basins of major rivers, designated as such by the State, shall be formulated by the environmental protection department under the State Council, together with the competent department of planning, water conservancy administration department and other departments concerned as well as the people’s governments of relevant provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government, and shall be submitted to the State Council for approval.

Plans for preventing and controlling water pollution of basins of other rivers that run across provinces or counties shall be formulated, in line with the plans for preventing and controlling water pollution of basins of major rivers, designated as such by the State, and in light of actual local conditions, by the environmental protection departments of the people’s governments at or above the provincial level, together with the water conservancy administration departments and other departments concerned as well as the relevant local people’s governments, and shall be submitted to the State Council or the people’s governments at the provincial level for approval. Plans for preventing and controlling water pollution of basins of other rivers that run across counties but not provinces shall be submitted by the people’s government of the province concerned to the State Council for the record.

Plans for preventing and controlling water pollution, once approved, shall serve as the essential basis for prevention and control of water pollution, and any modification of such plans shall be subject to approval of the original departments that approved the plans.

Local people’s governments at or above the county level shall, in accordance with the approved plans for preventing and controlling water pollution of river basins, organize people to work out plans for preventing and controlling water pollution for their own administrative regions and incorporate such plans in the long-term, medium-term and annual plans of their administrative regions for national economic and social development.

Article 11 Relevant departments under the State Council and local people’s governments at various levels shall make rational plans for the geographical distribution of industries, subject those enterprises that cause water pollution to rectification and technological updating, adopt comprehensive prevention and control measures, increase the rate of water recycling, utilize resources rationally and reduce discharge of waste water and pollutants.

Article 12 The people’s governments at or above the county level may delineate protection zones for water bodies in scenic or historic sites, major fishery water bodies and other water bodies of special economic or cultural value, and take measures to ensure that the water quality in those protection zones complies with the standards for the designated uses.

Article 13 New construction projects and expansion or reconstruction projects and other installations on water that directly or indirectly discharge pollutants to water bodies shall be subject to relevant State regulations governing environmental protection for such projects.

In the environmental impact statement of a construction project an assessment shall be made regarding the water pollution hazards the project is likely to produce and its impact on the ecosystem, and measures for their prevention and control shall be prescribed. The statement shall be submitted, according to the specified procedure, to the relevant environmental protection department for examination and approval. The building of sewage outlets within any water conservancy projects such as canals, irrigation channels and reservoirs shall be subject to consent of the relevant department in charge of water conservancy projects.

The facilities for prevention and control of water pollution must be designed, constructed and put to use or into operation simultaneously with the main part of a construction project. Such facilities must be inspected by the environmental protection department. If they do not conform to the specified requirements, the said project shall not be permitted to be put into operation or to use.

An environmental impact statement shall contain comments and suggestions of the units and residents in the place where the construction project is located.

Article 14 Enterprises and institutions that discharge pollutants directly or indirectly into a water body shall, pursuant to the regulations of the environmental protection department under the State Council, report to and register with the local environmental protection department their existing facilities for discharging and treating pollutants, and the categories, quantities and concentrations of pollutants discharged under their normal operating conditions, and also provide to the same department technical information concerning prevention and control of water pollution.

The enterprises and institutions mentioned in the preceding paragraph shall report without delay any substantial change in the categories, quantities or concentrations of the pollutants discharged. Their facilities for treating water pollutants must be kept in normal operation; when such facilities are to be dismantled or left idle, the matter must be reported in advance to the environmental protection department of the local people’s government at or above the county level for approval.

Article 15 Enterprises and institutions that discharge pollutants into a water body shall pay a pollutant discharge fee in accordance with State regulations; if the discharge exceeds the limits set by the national or local standards, they shall pay a fee for excess discharge according to State regulations.

The fees paid for pollutant discharge and for excess discharge must be used for prevention and control of water pollution and may not be used for any other purposes.

Enterprises and institutions that discharge pollutants in excess of the standards must work out plans to make the discharge conform to the standards, and shall submit, for the record, such plans to the environmental protection department of the local people’s government at or above the county level in the place where they are located.

Article 16 With regard to water bodies where the standards for water environment quality established by the State still cannot be attained although the discharge of water pollutants has conformed to the discharge standards, the people’s governments at or above the provincial level may institute a system for control of the total discharge of major pollutants, and a system for making an estimate before deciding on the quantity of major pollutants to be discharged by an enterprise that is charged with the task of reducing its discharge. Specific measures shall be formulated by the State Council.

Article 17 The environmental protection department under the State Council may, together with the water conservancy administration department under the State Council and the provincial people’s government concerned and in light of the utilization functions determined by the State for water bodies of major river basins as well as the economic and technological conditions of the related regions, establish water environment quality standards applicable to water bodies of such major river basins within the provincial boundaries, and such standards shall be put into practice after being reported to and approved by the State Council.

Article 18 Water resources protection agencies for major river basins determined as such by the State shall be responsible for monitoring the water environment quality conditions of such river basins within the boundaries of the provinces where they are located and shall, without delay, report the monitoring findings to the environmental protection department under the State Council and the water conservancy administration department under the State Council; where there are leading bodies for protection of water resources of the river basins that are set up with the approval of the State Council, such findings shall, without delay, be reported to those leading bodies.

Article 19 Urban sewage shall be centrally treated.

Relevant departments under the State Council and the local people’s governments at various levels must incorporate protection of urban water sources and prevention and control of urban water pollution in their respective plans for urban construction, construct and improve networks of urban drainage pipelines, construct facilities for central treatment of urban sewage according to plans, and improve all-round treatment and control of urban water environment.

Facilities for central treatment of urban sewage shall be, according to State regulations, provided for use with compensation, that is, a sewage treatment fee shall be collected so as to ensure normal operation of the facilities. Those who discharge sewage to the central treatment facilities and pay the fees for sewage treatment shall be exempted from the pollutant discharge fee. Sewage treatment fees collected shall be used for the construction and operation of the facilities for central treatment of urban sewage and may not be used for other purposes.

Specific measures for collection, control and use of the fees for facilities for central treatment of urban sewage shall be formulated by the State Council.

Article 20 The people’s governments at or above the provincial level may delineate surface sources protection zones for domestic and drinking water according to law. Such protection zones shall be divided into first-grade protection zones and protection zones of other grades. Certain water areas and land-based areas near the intakes of domestic and drinking surface water sources may be delineated as the first-grade protection zones. Certain water areas and land-based areas beyond the first-grade protection zones may be delineated as protection zones of other grades. Protection zones of all grades shall be indicated by clear geographic demarcations.

It is forbidden to discharge sewage into water bodies within the first-grade surface sources protection zones for domestic and drinking water.

It is forbidden to travel, swim or carry out other activities within the first-grade surface sources protection zones for domestic and drinking water that may possibly cause pollution to the water body.

It is forbidden to construct or expand within the first-grade surface sources protection zones for domestic and drinking water, any projects that have noting to do with water supply facilities and protection of water sources.

With regard to sewage outlets already built in the first-grade surface sources protection zones for domestic and drinking water, the people’s governments at or above the county level shall, pursuant to the limits of power authorized by the State Council, order that they be dismantled or treated within a time limit.

The protection of ground sources for domestic and drinking water shall be strengthened.

Specific measures for protection of domestic and drinking water sources shall be formulated by the State Council.

Article 21 In case of emergency, such as severe pollution of a domestic and drinking water source which threatens the safe supply of water, the environmental protection department shall, with the approval of the people’s government at the same level, take compulsory emergency measures, including ordering the enterprises or institutions concerned to reduce or stop the discharge of pollutants.