Recently, the Decision on Amending the Law of the People's Republic of China on the Prevention and Control of Water Pollution (the "Decision") has been adopted at the 28th Session of the Standing Committee of the 12th National People's Congress (NPC) and promulgated upon the execution of the Order of the President No. 70, effective from January 1, 2018.
According to the Decision, the State runs a system to control the total discharge of key water pollutants. The Decision makes it clear that any enterprise, public institution or other producers or operators that directly or indirectly discharge into waters the industrial wastewater, medical sewage, or any other wastewater or sewage that could not be discharged unless with the necessary pollutant discharge permit as required shall obtain such permit; additionally, an operator running facilities for centralized processing of town sewage is also required to acquire the pollutant discharge permit. The pollutant discharge permit shall specify the types of water pollutants discharged as well as their respective density, total discharge, discharge direction, and other requirements. Furthermore, the Decision revises provisions concerning effects on public health and ecological environment, operation of town sewage processing plants, protection and management of the sources of drinking water, etc.