Government bodies release guideline on water protection

The Supreme People's Procuratorate and the Ministry of Water Resources jointly issued a guideline for establishing a coordination mechanism between administrative law enforcement and procuratorial public interest litigation concerning water affairs to strengthen the protection of national and public interests in the field of water affairs and ensure national water security.

Water-related disasters, water resources and water ecology are closely related to public interests. At present, illegal acts such as obstructing flood discharge, illegally drawing water, occupying rivers, lakes and reservoirs and destroying dams are still prominent in some places, threatening national and public interest, the guideline said.

It went on to say procuratorates and water resources departments should focus on acts that infringe on the national interest or social public interest, especially illegal acts with serious impacts and perpetrators who refuse to correct their behavior.

Five key fields are covered: flood and drought disaster prevention, management of water resources, rivers and lakes, water conservancy projects and soil and water conservation.

People who carry out acts such as reclamation in reservoir areas, disposing of waste in river courses and reservoirs to obstruct flood discharge, construction of water intake projects without authorization, occupying river and lake waters, illegally mining sand or acts causing soil erosion could face administrative punishment from water resources departments, and prosecutors may initiate public interest litigation against violators.

Authorities shall hold regular working meetings to jointly analyze the water affairs and characteristics of illegal cases in their jurisdiction, and joint operations will be launched to target areas that have a high incidence of violations to maintain the order of water affairs.

When one case involves the responsibilities of multiple administrative organs, the local water resources department cannot coordinate with other departments to resolve existing problems or there is still a loss for public interests after enforcement, the case should be timely transferred to the local procuratorate.