Scientific Collection «InterConf», (39): with the Proceedings of the 8th International Scientific and Practical Conference «Science and Practice: Implementation to Modern Society» (December 26-28, 2020) at Manchester, Great Britain

Conclusions. Generalizing the above, we can conclude that the crime of water 
pollution is criminalized in most of the criminal laws studied above, with 
differentiations in terms of the scope of incrimination, the normative modalities and 
the sanctioning regime applicable to the deed. 
Regarding the sphere of incrimination, depending on the normative structure of 
the crime component, the comparative study offers us the possibility to distinguish two 
categories of criminal legislation, namely. 
1) criminal legislation in which the crime of water pollution is incriminated in the 
form of the crime of danger, this being considered consumed from the moment of 
generating the threat of causing damage. The class of these criminal legislations 
includes: Criminal Code of Ukraine (art. 242), Criminal Code of Belarus (art. 272), 
Criminal Code of Latvia (art. 102), Criminal Code of Germany (art. 324 ), Criminal 
Code of Spain (art. 325), Criminal Code of Denmark (art. 196);
2) criminal legislation establishing criminal liability for water pollution, the crime 
in question, being presented as a material crime. The class of these criminal legislations 
includes the countries of the former ex-Soviet space, they are: Criminal Code of the 
Russian Federation (art. 250), Criminal Code of Kazakhstan (art. 281), Criminal Code 
of Tajikistan, C. Criminal Code of Kyrgyzstan (art. 271), Criminal Code of Uzbekistan 
(art. 196), Criminal Code of Estonia (art. 158). 

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At first sight, the criminal laws in which the criminal responsibility for water 
pollution, assigns it to the category of “dangerous” crimes are more progressive, 
ensuring a more efficient protection of the waters through criminal law measures. 
However, in our view, the need to determine the “danger” sign combined with other 
“significant damage”, “other serious consequences” and other assessment signs can 
significantly reduce the effectiveness of this rule. In modern practice in the fight against 
environmental crime, there is no standard method and cannot be developed, according 
to which the collaborators of the law enforcement bodies can establish with precision 
and procedural proof, that as a result of pollution of aquatic or atmospheric objectives 
human life and health or the environment. Indeed, this is based on the fact that the field 
of ecological relations is unusually wide. For this reason it is practically impossible to 
take into account all natural factors (temperature impact, unexpected precipitation, 
accumulation of actions of other substances, etc.), which influence the occurrence or 
elimination of the danger of concrete damage as a result of water pollution. 
The fixing of the formal components in the criminal codes of the countries 
specified above confirms that a very important importance for the legislator of these 
countries is the ecological security of the waters. Attracting criminal liability for the 
simple act of committing the illegal action and the existence of an immediate danger 
of damage, when it does not have to prove the presence of a certain damage in the 
conditions of complex causal relationships, which depend on a wide range of natural 
factors, will allows to avoid law enforcement problems, will increase the effectiveness 
of resistance to water pollution. This experience can be used by the local legislator in 
the event of amending art. 229 CP RM. 
Not in vain the specialists from the countries that, the criminal legislation presents 
the crime of water pollution in the form of the material composition indicate the 
existence of problems in its application, a similar situation of application of the norm 
discussed in the practice of the Republic of Moldova. 
Another conclusion is that the composition of the crime of water pollution in the 
Criminal Code of the Republic of Moldova must be subject to changes by 

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reformulating the basic provision and replacing the rule with certain qualifying 
circumstances. This conclusion is based on the study and analysis of the laws of other 
states, which contain circumstances for the crime of water pollution. 
We believe that the development of environmental legislation in developing 
countries must be done in the light of the ecological situation in that country, taking 
into account the experience of other states, their environmental policies to improve 
criminal law regulations in the protection of water. A similar situation for the Republic 
of Moldova.
However, it should be noted that the positive experience in the field of study of 
foreign countries, it is necessary to assess adaptively to the conditions of the legal and 
cultural system of the Republic of Moldova.