Article​​​​​​​ 120. Conservation of small rivers and streams

The use of small rivers and streams is carried out in the manner of general or special water use.

The procedure for carrying out general water use and economic activity, as well as measures for preventing and eliminating their contamination, pollution, and depletion within the water protection zones and areas of small rivers and streams, are determined by local executive bodies in agreement with the bodies of ecology, environmental protection and climate change, water management bodies, and the bodies of the Committee for Sanitary and Epidemiological Wellbeing and Public Health.

In areas at risk of mudslides, general water use, economic activity, and other measures provided for in the second part of this article are also agreed upon with the specially authorized republican executive bodies in the field of protection from emergencies.

Institutions, organizations, farms and dehkan farms, and other legal entities and individuals whose economic activities have a negative impact on the condition and regime of small rivers and streams must, together with water management bodies and the bodies of ecology, environmental protection and climate change, carry out measures to maintain the water level, purity, and quality of water.

For the purpose of maintaining the water level of small rivers and streams, the following are prohibited in these rivers and streams:

changing the relief of the basin, and destroying or changing the beds of drying rivers and their flows;

straightening or narrowing the channels, deepening their beds below the natural level, or blocking them without equipping them with water transfer structures;

reducing the natural vegetation cover and tree cover of the basin, plowing floodplains, and using chemical fertilizers on such lands;

carrying out drainage and reclamation work in the waterlogged areas in the upper part and in natural lands;

carrying out other activities that may have a negative impact on the water level and the quality of water in them.

The water protection zones, coastal areas, and sanitary protection zones of small rivers and streams, and the regime of economic activity of enterprises, organizations, and institutions, as well as citizens in these zones and territories, are determined by this Code and other legislative acts.