Law of the PRC on the Prevention and Control of Water Pollution — Full English Translation (1984, Amended 2017)

Adopted at the 19th Session of the Standing Committee of the 6th National People’s Congress on May 11, 1984; revised at the 19th Session of the Standing Committee of the 8th National People’s Congress on May 15, 1996; amended in accordance with the Decision on Amending the Law of the People’s Republic of China on the Prevention and Control of Water Pollution adopted at the 32nd Session of the Standing Committee of the 10th National People’s Congress on February 28, 2008; amended for the second time in accordance with the Decision on Amending the Law of the People’s Republic of China on the Prevention and Control of Water Pollution adopted at the 5th Session of the Standing Committee of the 12th National People’s Congress on June 27, 2017

Effective: November 1, 1984

Table of Contents

Chapter I — General Provisions

Article 1 — This Law is enacted for the purposes of preventing and controlling water pollution, protecting and improving the water environment, safeguarding the safety of drinking water, and promoting comprehensive, coordinated, and sustainable economic and social development.

Article 2 — This Law shall apply to the prevention and control of pollution of surface water and groundwater within the territory of the People’s Republic of China.

Article 3 — The prevention and control of water pollution shall adhere to the principles of prevention-oriented, combining prevention with control, and comprehensive governance, with priority given to the protection of drinking water sources and strict control of industrial and urban pollution.

Chapter II — Water Pollution Prevention Standards

Article 4 — The State shall establish and improve water environment quality standards and water pollutant discharge standards. Water environment quality standards shall be formulated by the competent environmental protection authority under the State Council.

Chapter III — Supervision over Water Pollution Prevention

Article 5 — The State shall implement a water pollutant discharge permit system. Enterprises, public institutions, and other producers and operators that directly or indirectly discharge industrial wastewater, medical wastewater, or other water pollutants shall obtain a discharge permit.

Chapter IV — General Measures for Prevention of Water Pollution

Article 6 — The State shall establish drinking water source protection areas. It shall be prohibited to establish any sewage outlet within drinking water source protection areas.

Article 7 — Enterprises and public institutions shall adopt clean production techniques and equipment with high resource utilization rates and low pollutant emissions to reduce the generation of water pollutants.

Chapter V — Prevention of Industrial and Urban Water Pollution

Article 8 — The State shall adopt measures to strictly prohibit the construction of projects that seriously pollute the water environment without pollution prevention facilities. The people’s governments at or above the county level shall plan and build centralized urban sewage treatment facilities.

Chapter VI — Legal Liability

Article 9 — Where a water pollutant is discharged without a permit or in excess of the discharge standards, the competent environmental protection authority shall order the cessation of the illegal act, impose a fine, and, in serious cases, order the suspension or closure of the operation in accordance with the law.

Chapter VII — Supplementary Provisions

Article 10 — This Law shall come into force on November 1, 1984.