Law on waters.

This Law regulates general water management, use, supply and conservation rules and issues (activity of public interest) pertaining to surface waters, including the permanent watercourses or watercourses where the water flows occasionally, lakes, accumulations and springs, groundwaters, waterside land and water habitats and their management, including the distribution of waters, protection and conservation of waters, as well as protection against harmful effects of waters; water use for navigation; abstraction and drainage; water resources management facilities and services; organizational set up and financing of water resources management, as well as the conditions and the procedures under which the waters can be used and discharged.
The text is divided into fourteen main thematic Chapters as listed: I. General provisions; II. Water use; III. Planning; IV. Water protection; V. Protection against harmful effects of waters; VI. Water monitoring; VII. Information system; VIII. Water resources management of facilities and installations; IX. State of emergency and deviations; X. Material basis and financing of water resources management and development; XI. Organization in the water resources management; XII. Supervision; XIII. Misdemeanor procedures; XIV. Transitional and final provisions.
Waters, as goods of public interest, shall be the ownership of the Republic of Macedonia and shall enjoy special protection. The waters shall not be subject of the right to ownership of natural persons and legal entities, regardless of the legal regime of the land where they belong. In line with the objectives for long-¬term protection and sustainable use, the management of waters, waterside land and water habitats shall be based on the following recognized and adopted principles: Ecological, social and economic concept (waters are here defined as part of natural processes and they should be protected as habitats of the flora and fauna); Precautionary principle; Prevention principle; Principle of minimizing the use of resources; Principle of integration (integrated management); Pollutant pays principle; Principle “cost compensation”; Principle of preventing the pollution at the place of pollution occurrence (here including rules on use of fertilizers, mineral fertilizers and pesticides, which use is forbidden in the area of 10 meters from the waterside of the surface waters); Principle of time perspective; Principle of public participation and access to information; Principle of stakeholders’ participation; Principle of universality of water resources management services. The use of waters shall consist of activities for accumulation, impoundment, abstraction, redirection of surface waters and groundwaters for: 1) human consumption, irrigation, industrial, technological, business and other purposes; 2) generation of electricity and other plant purposes; 3) fish breeding; 4) navigation; 5) sport, recreation, bathing, and 6) accumulation, impoundment, abstraction, use, redirection and other purposes. No water use permit shall be required for the general use of waters. However, in regulated cases, related water-use permits shall be issued in accordance with these priorities: 1) water supply of population through a public water supply system, for the health institutions and legal entities in the field of veterinary medicine, for defense purposes, for the industry of food production and processing, and for livestock watering; 2) irrigation of agricultural land; 3) water supply for industry and business purposes; 4) hydro-power and other plant purposes; 5) for the needs of the parks and other public spaces; 6) water bottling for commercial purposes, and 7) other purposes. The objectives of this Law are aimed at ensuring the following: accessibility to sufficient quantity of good quality water, in accordance with the principles of sustainable drinking water resources management and food production, for agricultural, industrial, hydropower purposes, for parks and other public spaces, tourism, navigation and other purposes; protection, conservation and continuous improvement of the available water resources, improvement of waterside land status, aquatic ecosystems and water dependent ecosystems, protection and improvement of the aquatic environment by rational and sustainable use of waters, as well as progressive reduction of harmful discharges and gradual elimination of emissions of hazardous materials and substances into the waters; mitigation of the harmful effects of waters and of water deficiency; protection and improvement of environment and nature, aquatic ecosystems and biological diversity and protection of human health.