Any water resources, such as lakes or rivers, which are public property could be leased out to private individuals and legal entities for a particular period of time, as a bill that was approved by the Cabinet provides, IPN reports.
Under the bill, the leasing out will be possible as a result of a transparent public tender contest and the incomes earned from using the water resources will be transferred to the state budget or the local budget, as appropriate.
“The new provisions are aimed at ensuring the prevention and minimization of pollution of bodies of water by improving the normative framework concerning the management and protection of water resources in accordance with the international standards,” said Minister of Environment Iordanca-Rodica Iordanov.
The amendments to the legislation provide that the period of validity of the environmental permit for the special use of water will be reduced from 12 to six years, while for large-scale activities stipulated by law – from 25 to 12 years.
Publicly owned water resources will be only leased out to persons, not signed over
