Research On The Legal Protection Of Drinking Water Sources In The Yangtze River Basin

As an important watershed in China,the Yangtze River Basin has a vast watershed area and involves many administrative regions in China.The watershed contains many types of drinking water sources.Since the protection of drinking water sources involves many aspects such as residents’ survival and social and economic development,the effective protection of drinking water sources is of great significance to the Yangtze River Basin.Taking Hubei Province as an example,judging from the situation reflected by the Central Environmental Protection Supervision,the problems of the water environmental protection in the Yangtze River Basin are outstanding.In the case of existing laws and regulations,there are still many problems in the protection of drinking water sources.One of the practical issues is that the drinking water source protection legal system is not fully implemented,and there are situations where the law is not followed and the law enforcement is not strict.Drinking water is the foundation of human survival and development,and is of great significance to the healthy and stable operation of human society.In theory,access to safe drinking water is a basic right of human beings,and is the right of people to live as human beings.As a right to subsistence,the right to obtain safe drinking water requires members of the society to be able to guarantee the quantity and quality of water,and to obtain drinking water conveniently and affordably.However,in reality,there are more or less unrealizable situations.Therefore,it is necessary to transform this due right into real rights through law,and to exert the expressive function,guiding function,coercive force and relief of the law.At the same time,because drinking water resources have the nature of public goods,drinking water services have the characteristics of public services,which are generally public,and should also be economically affordable and safe.Combining these contents,it can be found that the protection of drinking water sources is actually a public service behavior that the government should implement regarding environmental protection,and it is also public.Therefore,it is also necessary to pass laws to clarify the responsibilities of the government,and at the same time use the legal coercive force to ensure the effectiveness of services.At present,China’s laws,administrative regulations,departmental regulations,local legislation and related technical specifications all involve the protection of drinking water sources.With the decline of local legislative power,nearly 50 cities of the 19 provinces involved in the Yangtze River Basin have issued local drinking water source protection regulations.In general,the current national legislation is over-principled,and there are also certain legislative gaps.The local legislation has achieved a certain supplement to the national legislative issues by refining the relevant legal system.Combined with the status quo of the implementation of the law on the protection of drinking water sources in the Yangtze River Basin,it can be found that there are certain problems in the legal protection of drinking water sources.Lack of a unified legal system as a guide,gaps in the prevention and control of pollution of underground drinking water sources,rural decentralized drinking water sources are not valued,the lack of a coordination mechanism for transboundary water source protection,and an ecological compensation system have not yet been established.To solve these problems,we should first fully mobilize the initiative of local legislation,improve the existing legal system through local legislation,and at the same time clarify the types of drinking water source inspection and responsible subjects in local legislation,and provide targeted prevention and control of underground drinking water sources.And require public services to make up for the lack of decentralized drinking water source protection.In addition,cross-regional administrative coordination mechanisms should be promoted,administrative coordination mechanisms should be built on the basis of river basin management,and cooperation and law enforcement on off-site inspection and protection should be further strengthened.Finally,we should encourage and support citizens to participate in the protection of drinking water sources,promote the construction of an ecological compensation system to compensate for the loss of interest,and conduct publicity and education activities to increase public awareness of participation.