Legal review of ownership of natural waterways and its legal implications

Ownership of natural waterways is one of the most important issues in the country's water rights، which, unfortunately, along with other important issues, this fledgling field was not considered due to the lack of a comprehensive law in the country's water industry. The subject of that affects all stakeholders and stakeholders, including individuals, legal entities, managers, judges and lawyers. In this article, an attempt has been made to mention the evolutionary stages of channel bed ownership, the obvious and exclusive examples of which are: rivers, natural streams and canals, in the laws that have been approved by the legislator since the beginning of the legislative period in Iran (1285 AH), expressed. In this article, an attempt has been made to mention the evolutionary stages of channel bed ownership. Therefore, taking into account the various divisions that exist for property, ownership of water channels with the term "natural" or "public use" should be included in the category of public property. With this view, ownership of natural water channels in the civil law approved in 1307 AH as the mother law and paragraph 6 of Article 96 of the Municipalities Law approved in 1345 AH as the first law that ruled the ownership of the riverbeds in the cities was checked. Also, Article 2 of the Water Law and the manner of its nationalization approved in 1347 AH and it’s following notes and Article 2 of the Law on Fair Distribution of Water and related notes approved in 1361 AH were analyzed as special laws for the water sector. In examining the legal status of this category of property in the relevant laws from the beginning of the legislative period until now, it was found that the ownership of water channels from the perspective of the legislator does not have a single ruling. The evolution of the relevant laws indicates that the legislator had three different views on the ownership of this category of property and in accordance with the circumstances of the time of the adoption of the law; 1- A view that respects private property, 2- A view that declares it in government ownership 3- A view that considers this property as public wealth and commonalities and at the disposal of the Islamic government. Since each of the legislative periods had an impact on the ownership of individuals over waterways, and whether rightly or wrongly at some point in time, actions were taken by individuals that led to the issuance of a title deed to such property in the name of individuals. And also that in the current law, according to which the last will of the legislator, which is currently in an executive position, not only private property of individuals but also state ownership of such property was not accepted. And given that the title deed to waterways has faced dramatic tides due to its legal background, and is not very clear in terms of legal vacuum or ambiguity in existing laws, by studying the laws of the subject and its analytical review, necessary attempt to explain the ownership of natural waterways is the subject of research, which is still one of the main concerns of stakeholders, , individuals and communities, was done the results indicate that in the current legal system, water channels can be divided into two categories: "natural" and "construction", each of which has its own rule. With comparison Article 2 and its following notes on special water laws, criteria and legal criteria for determining and determining the bed of rivers, natural streams and canals were reviewed and legal effects of how to determine and identify the bed of such natural channels according to the number and size of these channels throughout the country, increasing economic value of land, especially in a situation where we are facing population growth and rising land prices and land use change it was stated about the ownership of the owners of the adjacent lands and it was emphasized in accordance with the legal standards regarding the stabilization of the bed of natural water channels and its marking in nature which is a social and public demand, to be acted upon in a timely manner by regulating property relations between individuals and the government to prevent any encroachment on the riverbed on the one hand, as well as destroying the lands of adjacent owners or creating instability and restriction in their ownership on the other hand. The role and position of the government (executive branch, especially the Ministry of Energy) and the Islamic government in relation to such channels, which appeared naturally in the geographical area of each water basin without human intervention and are the place of water flow and rainfall was also explained. The result is that the bed of natural water channels is common to the Islamic government and is not considered part of government assets and the actions of the Ministry of Energy as a member of the government are only for the purpose of maintaining and protecting and exploiting the mentioned canals and not for the sake of owning the bed of natural water canals. Emphasizing that despite the passage of dozens of laws with different titles that are related to water, unfortunately, the comprehensive water law in the country has not been approved yet, therefore, it is necessary to adopt regulations that are comprehensive and preventive with the subject of natural water channels as a container that is free from any conciseness, ambiguity and defects, an essential need. It is also important to apply the existing legal criteria and criteria in identifying the bed of natural waterways and determining its final limit and stabilizing it in nature in order to protect public rights and prevent damage to the ownership of lands adjacent to natural waterways.