The Research On Legal Security Mechanism Of Rural Drinking Water Supply In China

Water, one of the basic substances in nature, is quite necessary for the survivaland development of human beings and it is the source of life. The adequacy of thewater supply of a country is an important criterion in measuring the living standard ofits inhabitants. In recent years, we have made some progresses in water supplyinfrastructure construction——the drinking water pollution has been contained incertain degree and the safety of drinking water has been guaranteed. However, theseimprovements are just limited to urban areas. For the rural areas where populationaccounts for70%of the whole nation, the drinking water supply situation is not sooptimistic, which is due to the profound historical background and the influence ofurban and rural duality system. At present, the water supply problems in vast ruralareas, especially in the western rural areas, have badly influenced daily lives of ruralresidents and their well-beings, hindering the economic growth in rural areas. Givensocial stability in China’s vast rural areas and the construction of new socialistcountryside, it is imperative to improve the relevant legal regulations.The legal mechanism for protecting potable water supply in rural areas is a seriesof legal regulations made by the government to regulate drinking water supply,including the management system of drinking water in rural areas, rural drinkingwater quality protected system, security system, early warning response mechanismsfor rural drinking water supply emergency, legal liability system of rural drinkingwater supply, etc. This paper focuses on the analysis of problems the above legalsystems have in our country. First, the legislation in rural potable water supply projectis incomplete, which is represented in the aspects that laws are too old to meet thecurrent needs and laws used to adjust supply project are few without a united system.Second, rural potable water supply system is not perfect, interpreted by several issueslike the large number of management departments, lack of coordination, unknownresponsibility and lagging construction of environmental agencies. Third, ruraldrinking water source protection law system is not perfect which is reflected inrelevant provisions of laws on the protection of groundwater and the excessivegroundwater extraction. Fourth, rural drinking water safety warning system andemergency management system are not perfect, which is reflected in the lacking of relevant legal regulations about emergency mechanism used to deal with watershortage caused by depletion of water resources or serious water pollution incidents.Fifth, legal liability system of rural drinking water supply is not perfect, representedin relevant regulations related to the liability body are not comprehensive and therelevant provisions due to irresponsibility of government body are few.Based on those issues above, this paper attempts to analyze the cause of theabove problems and tries to put forward the corresponding proposals by drawing onthe successful experiences of Western developed countries in drinking water supply.Besides the introduction and the conclusion, there are four parts in this paper. The firstpart is an overview of legal safeguard mechanism for rural drinking water supply. Itanalyzes the theory of the mechanism of legal protection of rural drinking watersupply in China in three aspects: the concept and basic elements of legal safeguardsystem for rural drinking water supply, the basic principles of the mechanism of legalprotection of rural drinking water supply and the importance of making a research onthe basic theory of legal protection of rural drinking water supply system. Part two isthe facts and evaluation of current legal safeguard mechanism for rural drinking watersupply, comprehensively listing the adjustments of the supply of drinking water inrural areas in China laws, administrative regulations, departmental rules and localrules, and the problems in analyzing existing legal protection mechanisms. Theseproblems are mainly based on incomplete legislation in rural drinking water supplyproject, inadequate management of rural drinking water supply systems, inadequatelaws systems for rural drinking water source protection, early warning systems fordrinking water safety in rural areas, the imperfect emergency management system,and the inadequate legal liability system of rural drinking water supply. Part three isabout the legal system of rural drinking water supply protection practice in foreigncountries and the enlightenment to our country. It introduces the legal protectionpractice in America of rural water supply through centering on the Safe DrinkingWater Act, Japan practice which is featured by comprehensive legal and regulatorysystems, and German practice with advanced management system as the main feature.And in this part, it interprets elaborately the necessity to pay attention to theperfection of legislation on rural drinking water management system. It needs diversified supply guarantying State supports combined with the market mechanism,and establish and improve the emergency warning mechanism to learn advancedexperience. Part four is the focus of the paper. In light of the existing problems aboutlegal protection of rural drinking water supply system discussed in the second part,realities in China and the advanced experience of foreign countries pointed out in thethird part, some practical proposals have been put forward in this part. This proposalfocuses on coordination between the law, strengthens relevant legislation about ruralwater supply project, improves the management system of rural drinking water supplyprojects, introduces market mechanism to guarantee the diversification of supply,strengthens the protection of groundwater sources of drinking water in rural areas, andestablishes and improves early warning mechanisms and the emergency managementmechanism about drinking water safety in rural areas, as well as establishes a strictlegal accountability system.