In the legislative sphere of the Russian Federation, there are various documents regulating human activities in all natural spheres. The Water Code is one of the most important documents, as it relates to the resource most often used by a person.
The first part of the document addresses the general provisions. It defines what water is, its sources are classified. This includes various concepts that determine the importance of fluid in human life. The Water Code also contains in general terms many definitions regarding natural sources.
The developers of the document themselves describe the purpose of its existence in the third article. It states that the Water Code of the Russian Federation exists in order to satisfy the universal right to clean water, as well as to ensure the equal and equitable use of all natural resources identified in this document.
It should also be said that this act addresses situations of contradiction of international law and laws adopted within the state. Thus, agreements signed by several countries, which operate on the basis of the fact of its existence, have a priority right over those positions that the Water Code of the Russian Federation contains. At the same time, international legislative acts that require the adoption of certain laws within the country will only be effective from the moment the relevant domestic legal act is introduced.
The Water Code defines the time status of all provisions adopted therein. In the general sense of the word, it does not have retroactive force. This means that the acts contained in it begin to act on those transactions and relations that will be carried out from the moment it enters into force. A different situation is possible if the code separately spells out the possibility for a given position to act on agreements concluded before its entry into force.
It should also be noted that this document means by the term
"water resources". This is
groundwater, as well as rocks that contain liquid, and open sources located on the surface, along with the banks and the bottom. The Water Code considers the complex of these objects as a single and indivisible whole. At the same time, a liquid in the environment outside the described conditions is not the subject of regulation of this document.
In general, the Water Code exists to regulate disputes around the most inexhaustible and necessary for the existence of life resource. The special points of this document are the protection of the national heritage. So, for example, Lake Baikal enjoys special status. This is due to the fact that due to the irrational use of this water resource, it has almost completely lost all its useful properties as a source of drinking water. If the measures indicated in this document are not taken, then humanity risks being left without its most important resource and dooms itself to a gradual slow extinction.