Law No.28/2023/QH15 on Water Resources.

This Law provides for the management, protection, exploitation and use of water resources, as well as for the prevention, control and remedy of harmful effects caused by water. The Law includes 86 Articles divided into 10 Chapters.
The core principle of the Law is that water supply must be managed in a comprehensive and integrated manner in terms of quantity and quality, surface and underground, upstream and downstream water. To improve water security, the Law defines clear responsibilities for State management in terms of water supply and resources, notably the planning, construction and operation of irrigation, hydropower, as well as urban and rural water supply structures. It also introduces economic policies on water resource taxes and charges and water resource accounting, ensuring accurate and full reflection of values of water resources as principles for revision of regulations on taxes and charges. Water charges are used as an instrument for raising responsible use of water users. The Law sets out water resource strategies; principles of, and basis for elaboration of water resource master plans; contents of the plans; elaboration and approval of water resources master plans; etc. In particular, Article 12 regulates the operation of basic survey on water resources. Such a survey must also assess, warn, and forecast the impact of climate change over water resources. A planning on water resources must be made on the basis of the impacts of climate change for water resources. The Law also stipulates that the priority is urbanisation and professionalisation of water resources management, aiming to monitor the country’s water resources on digital platforms through the national water resources information system and database.
Organizations and individuals exploiting water resources for domestic activities, agricultural production, aquaculture, industrial production, waterway traffic, hydropower, irrigation, sports, tourism, etc. must obtain a water resource exploitation permit, except in the case of small-scale use and in other cases as specified in the text; in the case of groundwater exploitation, a groundwater exploration permit must be obtained before constructing a work. The cases that must be registered to exploit water resources listed Clause 4, Article 54 include: Exploiting surface water sources for use in agricultural production and aquaculture on a medium scale; Exploiting seawater for use in production, business, service, and aquaculture activities on land on a medium scale; etc.
The Law further provides for: responsibilities and obligations of State agencies, organizations and individuals for the prevention, control and remedy of harmful effects caused by floods and by other natural disasters; financial policies and mechanisms to revitalise degraded, depleted and polluted water and other water resource-related finance; specialized water resource inspection and settlement of disputes over water resources; etc.