Legislation on water

The New Water Legislation in Syria

Issued in 2005, the new Syrian Water Legislation (Law 31, 2005) regulates water demand management approaches at the national level and use of water resources to avoid groundwater depletion. The legislation focuses on a number of issues, primarily; supporting modern irrigation methods, controlling licenses to drill wells and use groundwater, establishing farmers’ fund mechanisms to support the transfer into modern irrigation on the farm-level. Another key element in the new Water Legislation is the support of participatory approach to water management through the establishment of Water User Associations (MoI 2009).