Water Environment Conservation Act.

The purpose of this Act is to prevent harm to citizens health and environmental hazards due to water pollution and to appropriately manage and conserve the water environments of public waters, including rivers, lakes and marshes, in order to enable citizens to enjoy benefits accruing from such endeavors, and to leave such benefits to future generations.
In order to manage and conserve the water environments of public waters, the State and local governments shall formulate policies to prevent the contamination or degradation of the water environments and to properly recover the contaminated or degraded water environments. The Minister of Environment shall designate and publicly notify regions subject to the total pollution load control, determine and publicly notify the target water quality to be achieved by the total pollution load control, and formulate basic guidelines for quantity regulation of pollutants. Every Mayor/Do Governor who has jurisdiction over a region subject to the total pollution load control shall formulate a master plan for total pollution load management. The Minister of Environment shall formulate a master plan for national water environment management every ten years, and examine the current status of aquatic ecosystems on a nationwide scale to formulate a plan for conserving aquatic ecosystems, and to predict changes in aquatic ecosystems due to development project. The Minister of Environment or the head of a local government shall ascertain the current status of water environments, and the healthiness of aquatic ecosystems in accordance with a master plan to manage the national water environment and a master plan to manage water environments for each sphere of influence of the river basin. The State and local governments may support local residents and non-governmental organizations in their voluntary activities to conserve the water environment, and to monitor the pollution of or damage to the water environment. No person shall engage in any of the discharge activities prohibited by Article 15. No head of any administrative agency shall grant a license for aquaculture that installs a floating fish cage in a lake and marsh serving as a water source among the aquaculture provided for in Article 6 (1) of the Inland Water Fisheries Act. Permissible limits for water pollutants discharged from wastewater discharge facilities shall be prescribed by Ordinance of the Ministry of Environment.
The Act further make provisions for: reporting of water pollution incidents, inspections, traffic restrictions to conserve water quality of water sources, prevention of water pollution due to occupancy and use, or reclamation of land from public waters, restrictions on fishing, water pollution alert system, special measures to improve water quality of water sources, offences and penalties, etc.