The legal basis of the water politics for the next decades is the law adopted in July 1995. The Water Law is a legal instrument which was introduced with the aim to address the challenges that confront the country with regard to the increasing water scarcity, the strong demand pressures, the increase of water costs, the deterioration of water quality and the natural environment. Essential management water principles adopted by this law are:

• The public field of water: all waters are part of the public hydraulic field; the only exception is the traditional water rights, whose property is already either established or recognized by a suitable procedure;
• The uniqueness of the resource: the water resource is unique and the quantitative and qualitative aspects of surface and ground waters are inseparable;
• The unit of the water management: water management is made at the scale of the hydraulic basin, which is the suitable geographic entity to conduct the development and the management of water; 
• The recognition of the economic value of water: the application of the user-polluter-pays principle is a more an incentive than a dissuasive measure to ensure water conservation, through the regulation of water demand;
• The national and regional solidarity: the creation of Basin Agencies aims at the implementation of solidarity mechanisms, particularly in water management processes, between users, between sectors and between regions.
• Dialogue in water management: water management issues must be discussed at all levels (national, regional, local) between administration services, users and the elected. Two major arrangements will permit to insert better and finally to institutionalize the dialogue of the water management:
  • The affirmation of the High Council of Water and the Climate, which is the forum that allows all national actors concerned by water issues to debate on the national policy and the fundamental directions of water resource management.
  • The creation of Hydraulic Basin Agencies that will permit a real decentralization of water management implying that all parties concerned are involved in decision-making.