The right to develop rules for the use of beaches want to transfer to the municipalities

© Timur Khanov/PG

They want to give municipal authorities the right to develop rules for the use of beaches and reservoirs. The State Duma adopted such a bill in the first reading at the plenary session on February 14.

According to the head of the Ministry of Natural Resources, Alexander Kozlov, the document will solve a long-standing problem, when “people’s recreation on the beach did not fit in with the activities carried out on the water.” For example, there is a children’s camp on the shore, and boats are allowed to park on the water. “Now over 300 kilometers of the water surface have been issued for use, and almost nowhere the permitted activity does not take into account what is allowed on the coast,” Kozlov noted. This is especially true for the Krasnodar Territory.

This situation has developed because Rosvodresursy is responsible for water use agreements, the regional Ministry of Natural Resources is responsible for rivers, and the municipality determines the rules for recreation in recreational areas on land. “The bill clearly states that the rule now belongs to land. The municipality, prescribing recreation areas, will also approve the rules for the use of water bodies,” Kozlov explained. That is, for example, if they plan to equip a city beach on the shore, then this should be taken into account on the water.

Read also:

• The placement of floating objects in the water area was proposed to be allowed without bidding • The territories of children’s beaches want to be protected from strangers • Last year, the law on the protection of water resources was violated more than 20 thousand times

The original version of the draft provides that the rules will affect new water use agreements. About 1,500 of them are concluded annually. When preparing the draft for the second reading, it is proposed to include an amendment stating that the new norms should also work under already concluded agreements. There are about 11 thousand of them throughout Russia.

The bill also removes duplicate documents in the requirements for the quality of effluents. “The business community came up with such a proposal and Rosprirodnadzor supported them, since the impact on the quality of effluents of a particular water user is determined at the stage of drawing up standards for permissible wastewater discharges,” the minister noted. In part of the reservoirs, they also want to leave one document, and not two, as it is now. The rules for technical operation, which Rostekhnadzor evaluates, are already included in the industry legislation on hydraulic structures, Kozlov explained.

The document also establishes that warning signs should be installed only in recreational areas so that vacationers know what can and cannot be done on the shore and in the water. According to the estimates of the Ministry of Natural Resources, the reduction of plates will save from 300 to 400 million rubles.

Also read about what laws come into force in February.