Artikel 5

In taking measures to implement this Protocol, the Parties shall be guided in particular by the following principles and approaches:
a) The precautionary principle, by virtue of which action to prevent, control or reduce water-related disease shall not be postponed on the ground that scientific research has not fully proved a causal link between the factor at which such action is aimed, on the one hand, and the potential contribution of that factor to the prevalence of water-related disease and/or transboundary impacts, on the other hand;
b) The polluter-pays principle, by virtue of which costs of pollution prevention, control and reduction shall be borne by the polluter;
c) States have, in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations and the principles of international law, the sovereign right to exploit their own resources pursuant to their own environmental and developmental policies, and the responsibility to ensure that activities within their jurisdiction or control do not cause damage to the environment of other States or of areas beyond the limits of national jurisdiction;
d) Water resources shall be managed so that the needs of the present generation are met without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs;
e) Preventive action should be taken to avoid outbreaks and incidents of water-related disease and to protect water resources used as sources of drinking water because such action addresses the harm more efficiently and can be more cost-effective than remedial action;
f) Action to manage water resources should be taken at the lowest appropriate administrative level;
g) Water has social, economic and environmental values and should therefore be managed so as to realize the most acceptable and sustainable combination of those values;
h) Efficient use of water should be promoted through economic instruments and awareness-building;
i) Access to information and public participation in decision-making concerning water and health are needed, inter alia, in order to enhance the quality and the implementation of the decisions, to build public awareness of issues, to give the public the opportunity to express its concerns and to enable public authorities to take due account of such concerns. Such access and participation should be supplemented by appropriate access to judicial and administrative review of relevant decisions;
j) Water resources should, as far as possible, be managed in an integrated manner on the basis of catchment areas, with the aims of linking social and economic development to the protection of natural ecosystems and of relating water-resource management to regulatory measures concerning other environmental mediums. Such an integrated approach should apply across the whole of a catchment area, whether transboundary or not, including its associated coastal waters, the whole of a groundwater aquifer or the relevant parts of such a catchment area or groundwater aquifer;
k) Special consideration should be given to the protection of people who are particularly vulnerable to water-related disease;
l) Equitable access to water, adequate in terms both of quantity and of quality, should be provided for all members of the population, especially those who suffer a disadvantage or social exclusion;
m) As a counterpart to their rights and entitlements to water under private law and public law, natural and legal persons and institutions, whether in the public sector or the private sector, should contribute to the protection of the water environment and the conservation of water resources; and
n) In implementing this Protocol, due account should be given to local problems, needs and knowledge.