This new Water Law of Lebanon in reality is a re-edition of the previous Law that was tainted by many loopholes that made it almost impossible to implement, therefore, all concerned departments worked to fill the aforementioned gaps and ensure consistency between the articles. The basic principles and provisions do not change, what changes are the graphic layout (clearer and more schematic) and some details, it can be said secondary, relating to the content. Chapter 1 about General Provisions immediately reports some general statements, which are (i) Water is a national treasure; (ii) Water right; (iii) Water Law Objectives, which are (1) organize, develop, rationalize and exploit water resources; (2) protect them from depletion and pollution; (3) raise the efficiency of systems for the maintenance and operation of water facilities, transfer, and distribution; (4) promote sustainable management of the natural water resources. Article 7 establishes that the Ministry of Energy and Water has the authority to manage water public properties. As for the content, Water user rights are declared at art.5, while the General objectives through sustainable water management are listed as follows in art.6: (i) water resources' conservation; (ii) priority of providing citizens with drinking water; (iii) sanitation of wastewater; (iv) meet the water needs for agriculture, livestock, hunting, fishing and fish farming in inland waters, mineral water extraction, industry needs and power generation, among the others; (v) utilize non-conventional water sources; (vi) combat floods, droughts and emergency or chronic pollution. Article 9 on Non-public water, expressly declares that the uncommon waters that are collected by individuals can be used but not sold to third parties. Article 14 about the National Water Authority slightly changed the list of ministries that compose it (now Environment, Industry, Agriculture, Public Works and Transportation, Health, Finance, Interior and Municipalities, and Tourism). Article 18 relating to the Sustainable water management goals, adds between the other goals (i) determine ways to optimize the use of water to achieve the maximum benefit for all current and future needs in the main water sectors; and (ii) develop a plan to prevent and treat water pollution. Article 27 dealing with the Monitoring system of waterworks adds 'the cleaning, deepening, straightening, or regulating temporary or permanent watercourses', together with erasing the sentence 'Determining the permissible depth' before mentioning the extraction of groundwater.
The 10 Chapters are entitled as follows General Provisions (I); Regulatory and Legal framework (II); Monitoring system (III); Economic and Financial Regulation to manage the water sector (IV); Management of the public water utility (V); Protection of environmental and water systems (VI); Managing and preventing natural hazards (VII); Penal Provisions (VIII); Legal follow-up to water management (IX); Final and transitional provisions (X).