At the present, in the very difficult climatic and socio-economic conditions of the Republic of Moldova, the contravention sanction is a main instrument of the mechanism for regulating the use of water resources. The main topics analysed in this study are: 1) the current methodology of contravention sanctions for violating water use legislation; 2) the application, at regional and local (district) level, of fines for all categories of violations and damages caused to waters; 3) identification of problematic situations and elaboration of recommendations for optimizing the contravention sanction for the purpose of rational use and prevention of excessive pollution of water resources.