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Whereby The Program For The Efficient Use And Saving Of Water Is Established

Original Language Title: Por la cual se establece el programa para el uso eficiente y ahorro del agua

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373 OF 1997

(June 6)

Official Journal No. 43,058 of 11 June 1997

By which the program is established for the efficient use and saving of water.

Vigency Notes Summary

COLOMBIA CONGRESS

DECRETA:

ARTICLE 1o. PROGRAM FOR THE EFFICIENT USE AND SAVING OF WATER. Any regional and municipal environmental plan must necessarily incorporate a program for the efficient use and saving of water. It is understood by program for the efficient use and water saving the set of projects and actions to be elaborated and adopted by the entities entrusted with the provision of the services of aqueduct, sewerage, irrigation and drainage, production Hydroelectric and other users of the water resource.

Regional Autonomous Corporations and other environmental authorities responsible for the management, protection and control of water resources in their respective jurisdiction shall approve the implementation and implementation of such programs in coordination with other authorities. Autonomous corporations that share the sources that supply the different uses.

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ARTICLE 2o. CONTENT OF THE PROGRAM OF EFFICIENT USE AND WATER SAVING. The program of efficient use and water saving, will be five-year and should be based on the diagnosis of the water supply of the sources of supply and the demand for water, and to contain the annual targets for loss reduction, educational campaigns for the community, the use of surface water, rainfall and groundwater, incentives and other aspects to be defined by Regional Autonomous Corporations and other authorities Environmental protection, which is the subject of the European Commission's report on the handle irrigation and drainage projects, hydroelectric projects and other users of the resource, which are considered suitable for the implementation of the program.

PARAGRAFO. Modify the number 71.2 and paragraph 1o. Article 71 of Law 142 of 1994.

In order to ensure coordination between the functions of the Ministry of the Environment and the Commission on the Regulation of Drinking Water and Basic Sanitation in respect of the objectives of the program of efficient use and water saving, modify the composition of the Commission for the Regulation of Drinking Water and Basic Sanitation.

The numeral 71.2 of Law 142 of 1994 will remain so: Four experts commissioned exclusively, appointed by the President of the Republic for a period of 3 years, re-eligible and not subject to the provisions governing the race administrative. One of them in a rotating manner shall exercise the functions of coordinator in accordance with the rules of procedure. The internal distribution of the work among them will ensure that everyone has the opportunity to provide their services in respect of the various kinds of matters which fall within the competence of the Commission. In any case, one of the experts must demonstrate knowledge in environmental matters.

Paragraph 1o. Article 71 will thus remain: the Commission for the Regulation of Drinking Water and Basic Sanitation will belong to the Ministers of Health and the Environment. The Energy and Fuel Gas Regulatory Commission will belong to the Minister of Finance and Public Credit. Ministers will only be able to delegate their assistance to the deputy ministers and the director of the National Planning Department in the Deputy Director.

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ARTICLE 3o. PRODUCTION AND PRESENTATION OF THE PROGRAM. Each entity responsible for providing the water, sewage, irrigation and drainage services, of hydroelectric production, and other users of the water resource will present for approval of the Regional Autonomous Corporations and other environmental authorities, the Water Efficient and Efficient Use Program. These environmental authorities will have to produce and submit to the Ministry of the Environment an executive summary for their information, monitoring and control, within six months from the approval of the programme.

PARAGRAFO 1o. The entities responsible for the execution of the Program for Efficient Use and Water Saving shall submit the first program the following (12) twelve months from the time of this law, and for a period covering up to the approval of the next development plan of the territorial entities concerned by Article 31 of Law 152 of 1994. The next programme will have a horizon of 5 years and will be incorporated into the development plan of the territorial entities. The Autonomous Corporations and other environmental authorities must submit an annual report to the Ministry of the Environment on the implementation of the program.

PARAGRAFO 2o. The investments that are made in compliance with the described program, will be incorporated in the administration costs of the public water and sewer services and the other user entities of the resource.

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ARTICLE 4. REDUCTION OF LOSSES. Within the Water Efficient and Savings Use Program, the Commission on Drinking Water Regulation and Basic Sanitation will set annual targets, to reduce losses in each aqueduct system. Regional Autonomous Corporations and other competent environmental authorities shall set the goals of efficient use and water saving for other users in their area of jurisdiction. The targets shall be defined taking into account the water balance of the hydrographic units and the investments required to achieve them.

PARAGRAFO. The presentation of the program and the fulfillment of the targets for reduction of losses will be taken into account for the approval of the National Planning Department and the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit and other authorised public entities, in relation to loans and other economic and financial incentives for the implementation of projects and activities to be carried out by the users of the water resource.

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ARTICLE 5o. MANDATORY REUSE OF WATER. The waters used, whether they are of surface origin, underground or rain, in any activity that generates liquid tributaries, must be reused in primary and secondary activities when the technical process The economic and economic analysis and the environmental quality standards. The Ministry of the Environment and the Ministry of Economic Development will regulate within a maximum period of (6) six months, counted from the current law, the cases and the types of projects in which the water should be reused.

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ARTICLE 6o. OF THE CONSUMPTION METERS. All the entities that provide the aqueduct and irrigation service, and other users determined by the Regional Autonomous Corporation or the competent environmental authority, have a one-year period starting from the validity of this law, in order to advance a program aimed at installing consumer meters to all users, in order to comply with the provisions of article 43 of Law 99 of 1993 and article 146 of Law 142 of 1994.

The Drinking Water Regulation Commission and the environmental authorities may exempt companies whose users do not exceed the minimum or basic consumption established by them, according to their respective competencies, from this obligation. legal.

PARAGRAFO. The approval and the cost of installation or construction, as the case for the corresponding meters, may be financed by the company of the aqueduct service, as well as its maintenance, which will invoice such costs to the user, without prejudice to the provisions of article 144 of Law 142 of 1994.

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ARTICLE 7o. BASIC AND MAXIMUM CONSUMPTION. It is the duty of the Regulatory Commission for Drinking Water and Basic Sanitation of Regional Autonomous Corporations and other environmental authorities, according to their competencies, to establish basic consumption water uses, to discourage the maximum consumption of each user and to establish the procedures, the tariffs and the measures to be taken for those consumers who exceed the maximum consumption fixed.

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ARTICLE 8o. TARIFF INCENTIVES. The Commission on the Regulation of Drinking Water and Basic Sanitation will define a tariff structure that encourages the efficient use and saving of water, and discourages its irrational use. The Superintendence of Public Services, domiciled, will monitor compliance with the requirements of the Commission.

Regional Autonomous Corporations and other environmental authorities will define the mechanisms that encourage the efficient use and saving of water, and discourage their inefficient use.

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ARTICLE 9o. OF THE NEW PROJECTS. The public entities responsible for granting licenses or permits to advance any kind of project that consumes water, must require that it be included in the study of sources of supply, the supply of water rainfall and to be used if it is technically and economically viable.

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ARTICLE 10. OF THE HYDROGEOLOGICAL STUDIES. To define the feasibility of the granting of groundwater concessions, the Regional Autonomous Corporations and other environmental authorities will carry out the hydrogeological studies, and advance the actions for the protection of the relevant recharging zones.

The previous studies will be carried out, with the technical and scientific support of IDEAM and Ingeominas.

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ARTICLE 11. INFORMATION UPDATE. As of this law, all users of the water resource shall have a term of no more than six months to send the following information:

a) Name of the user entity, geographic location, and policy where the service is provided;

b) Name, geographical location and type of source or sources where the waters are caught;

c) Name, geographical location, and type of source or recipient sources of the tributaries;

d) Annual average daily flow in litres per second of the source of the catchment and the source of the effluent;

e) Annual average daily flow captured by the user entity;

f) Number of system users;

g) Flow consumed by system users;

h) Percentage in litres per second of system losses;

i) Quality of water from the source of the source, the effluent and the source receiving it, the kind of treatments required and the system and the frequency of monitoring;

j) Annual projection of the growth rate of demand for the water resource according to uses;

k) Daily average flow rate in litres per second, in dry and rain times, in sources of supply and in the receiving of effluents;

l) Programs for the protection and conservation of water sources;

m) Likely sources of supply and discharge of effluents that are available for future expansion of demand.

PARAGRAFO 1o. This information will be updated annually by user entities.

PARAGRAFO 2o. The aqueduct home service providers will send the above information to the Ministry of Economic Development in order to keep the national health inventory up to date. The entities that handle the irrigation projects and other users of the resource shall send to the environmental entity that has jurisdiction in the relevant territory, the information referred to in this Article.

All the user entities of the resource will send to the Ministry of Economic Development and regional corporations and other environmental authorities the information above within a maximum period of three (3) months, counted from the effective the present law. The Ministry of Economic Development and Regional Corporations and other environmental authorities will send to the IDEAM this information for incorporation into the Environmental Information System, within a period of not more than one (1) month from the date of their reception.

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ARTICLE 12. EDUCATIONAL CAMPAIGNS FOR USERS. User entities should include in their budget the costs of educational and community awareness campaigns for the streamlined and efficient use of water resources.

PARAGRAFO. As a support for these campaigns and in development of the 332 number of 5or. Law 99 of 1993 the Ministry of the Environment will hold the necessary agreements with the administrative entities of the water resource, in order to achieve an effective awareness in the efficient use and the saving of the water.

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ARTICLE 13. TEACHING PROGRAMS. In accordance with the number of the 9o., of article 5, of Law 99 of 1993, the Ministry of the Environment, together with the Ministry of National Education, will adopt the educational plans and programs and will adapt the pension at the primary and secondary levels of education, including topics related to the rational and efficient use of water.

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ARTICLE 14. 137 of Law 812 of 2003 >

Vigency Notes
Previous Legislation
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ARTICLE 15. LOW WATER CONSUMPTION TECHNOLOGY. The ministries responsible for the sectors that use the water resource will regulate within a maximum period of six (6) months the installation of equipment, systems and implements of low water consumption to be used by the users of the resource and for the gradual replacement of high consumption equipment and implements.

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ARTICLE 16. PROTECTION OF SPECIAL MANAGEMENT ZONES. 160 of Law 1151 of 2007 >

Vigency Notes
Previous Legislation
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ARTICLE 17. SANTIONS. Environmental entities within their respective jurisdiction in exercise of the police powers granted by Article 83 of Law 99 of 1993, shall apply the established sanctions. Article 85 of this law, to the entities entrusted with the provision of the aqueduct service and to the users who waste water, the managers or directors or legal representatives will be applied to them disciplinary sanctions established in Law 200 of 1995 and in its regulatory decrees.

Editor Notes
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ARTICLE 18. VALIDITY. This law governs from the date of its issue and repeals all other rules that are contrary to it.

The President of the Senate,

LUIS FERNANDO LONDONO CAPURRO.

The Secretary General of the Senate,

PEDRO PUMAREJO VEGA.

The President of the honourable House,

GIOVANNI LAMBOGLIA MAZZILLI.

The Secretary General of the honorable House of Representatives,

DIEGO VIVAS TAFUR.

COLOMBIA-NATIONAL GOVERNMENT

Publish and execute.

Dada en Santa Fe de Bogota, D. C., 6 June 1997.

ERNESTO SAMPER PIZANO

The Minister of Economic Development,

ORLANDO JOSE CABRALES MARTINEZ.

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