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Water rights; application for a permit

An official permit is required for any impact on a body of water that is not of minor importance.

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Procedure details

Society's demands on the use of water are diverse and conflictual. Therefore, all human impacts on surface and underground water must be purposefully organized and monitored. This is the task of the water laws and their enforcement. Water law authorities are the district administrative authorities (district administrations, independent cities and individual district municipalities to a limited extent).

Water law is made up of legal norms of the European Community, legal norms issued by the federal government and legal norms issued by the Free State of Bavaria. You need official permission for any impact on a body of water that is not of minor importance. In particular, land ownership does not generally entitle the owner to use water bodies etc. (§ 4 Para. 3 WHG). The link below will take you to a website where you will find an overview of the most important water law procedures and their legal treatment.

There are several types of permits under water law:

  • A permit or authorization is required to use a body of water, e.g. if you want to discharge water from a stream, dam up a body of water or discharge substances (Section 9 WHG).
  • The creation, removal or significant alteration of a body of water or its banks requires a so-called plan approval or planning permission (§ 68 WHG).
  • In the case of larger bodies of water, structures in bodies of water or at a distance of less than 60 m from a body of water generally require a permit in accordance with Section 36 WHG, Art. 20 BayWG, if a building permit is not already required.


Permission is not required, for example, for

  • the abstraction of groundwater in small quantities for agricultural, forestry and horticultural purposes to maintain soil fertility (Section 46 (3) WHG, Art. 29 BayWG)
  • Activities that fall under the so-called public use of surface waters (§ 25 WHG, Art. 18 BayWG; possible for bathing, watering, ice sports, etc.)
  • some impacts on certain bodies of water, provided they are of minor importance in terms of water management (see Art. 1 Para. 2 BayWG; e.g. in the case of an artificial pond that is not connected to other bodies of water)

The district administrative authority is generally responsible for issuing a permit, i.e. the district administration office for the area of the district or the independent city for its urban area. In certain cases, larger municipalities belonging to the district may also be responsible.

Administrative court action

Status: 07.06.2024
Editorial responsibility Bayerisches Staatsministerium für Umwelt und Verbraucherschutz
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