Water Act 1948
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
| Citation | 1948 c. 22 |
| Year | 1948 |
Water Act, 1948
(11 & 12 Geo. 6.) CHAPTER 22.
An Act to amend the Water Act, 1945, and for purposes connected therewith.
[24th March 1948]
Be it enacted by the King's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:—
1 Amendment of definition of ‘statutory water undertakers.’
1. Section fifty-nine of the principal Act (which provides for the interpretation of that Act) shall have effect as if for the definition of the expression ‘statutory water undertakers’ contained in subsection (1) of that section there were substituted the following definition:—
‘'statutory water undertakers' means any company, local authority, board, committee, or other person authorised by a local enactment to supply water and any local authority or board supplying water under the Public Health Act, 1936, and also includes, for the purposes of Part II of this Act only, any local authority authorised to supply water by the said Act of 1936 but not actually supplying water under that Act, but the said expression does not include a railway company or navigation authority having statutory power to sell surplus water or any body or person supplying water solely for the purpose of producing motive power by hydraulic pressure.’
2 Combination of certain orders under principal Act.
(1) Subject to the provisions of this section, an order under section twenty-three of the principal Act, made on the application of persons who propose to become statutory water undertakers and authorising those persons to supply water, may provide—
(a ) for transferring to the applicants, whether by agreement or compulsorily, the undertaking or part of the undertaking of any water undertakers, whether statutory or not;
(b ) for requiring any statutory water undertakers to give to the applicants, or the applicants to give to any such undertakers, a supply of water in bulk (whether within or outside their limits of supply), and for requiring the applicants or those undertakers, as the case may be, to take such a supply;
(c ) for authorising the compulsory acquisition by the applicants of such rights to take water from any stream or other source as may be specified in the order.
(2) Subject to the provisions of this section, an order under section nine of the principal Act, providing for the constitution of a joint board or joint committee of two or more statutory water undertakers or for the amalgamation of the undertakings or parts of the undertakings of two or more statutory water undertakers, may make provision, in relation to the undertakers constituted by the order, for any purpose authorised by the last foregoing subsection in relation to the applicants for an order under section twenty-three of the principal Act, and may provide—
(a ) for authorising the undertakers to construct, acquire by agreement, alter or continue, and to maintain, water-works and works connected therewith;
(b ) for authorising the undertakers to raise capital or borrow money for any purposes of their water undertaking.
(3) An order under section twenty-three or section nine of the principal Act which makes provision for any purpose authorised by this section may contain such incidental, consequential and supplementary provisions as the Minister thinks necessary or expedient for that purpose, including provisions for the amendment or repeal of any local enactment and for the transfer of property and liabilities:
Provided that no such order shall, except as provided by section three of this Act, empower the undertakers to acquire compulsorily any land, or shall vary compulsorily the amount of compensation water required by any enactment to be discharged into any water course or the periods during which or the manner in which such compensation water is required to be discharged.
(4) Where application is made under the said section twenty-three or section nine, as the case may be, for an order requiring any statutory water undertakers to give or take a supply of water in bulk, a copy of the notice of the application required by Part I of the First Schedule to the principal Act (which regulates the procedure for making orders under the sections aforesaid) shall be served in accordance with the provisions of paragraph 3 of that Schedule—
(a ) on those undertakers; and
(b ) on the catchment board for any catchment area, the fishery board for any fishery district, and any river board having jurisdiction over any water-course, from which water is taken by the persons who are to give the bulk supply.
(5) Subsections (3) to (5) of section twenty-six of the principal Act (which provide for securing the provision of compensation water, and for restricting the taking of water, in relation to the acquisition of rights under that section) shall have effect as if references therein to the acquisition of rights under that section included references to the acquisition of the like rights by an order made under section nine or twenty-three of that Act.
(6) Notwithstanding anything in section twenty-three of the principal Act, paragraph 8 of the First Schedule to that Act (which provides that in certain circumstances an order shall be subject to special parliamentary procedure) shall apply to any order under that section which makes provision for any of the matters specified in subsection (1) of this section.
3 Compulsory acquisition of land for construction of waterworks.
(1) Subject to the provisions of this section, an order under section twenty-three or section nine of the principal Act authorising any persons to construct or alter waterworks or works connected therewith may authorise those persons to acquire compulsorily any land required for the construction or alteration of those works, being land which they could be so authorised to acquire by means of a compulsory purchase order made under section twenty-four of the principal Act, or under that section as amended by the Acquisition of Land (Authorisation Procedure) Act, 1946 , as the case may be.
(2) The provisions of the Schedule to this Act shall have effect in relation to an order under the said section twenty-three or the said section nine which authorises any such acquisition as aforesaid.
4 Supply of water in bulk.
(1) Subsection (1) of section twelve of the principal Act (which authorises the making of agreements between statutory water undertakers and other persons for the supply of water in bulk) shall have effect as if for the words ‘Any statutory water undertakers may enter into an agreement with any other persons’ there were substituted the words ‘An agreement may be made between any statutory water undertakers and any other persons.’
(2) An order made under subsection (1) of section twenty-three of the principal Act on the application of persons who propose to become statutory water undertakers may authorise the applicants to supply water in bulk only.
(3) Any order made by virtue of the last foregoing subsection shall specify the area which for the purposes of any provisions of the principal Act, is to be deemed to be the limits of supply of the undertakers; and without prejudice to any other powers exercisable by means of an order under the said section twenty-three or under section twelve of the principal Act, the order may authorise or require the applicants to give a supply of water in bulk to any statutory water undertakers specified in the order, being undertakers authorised to supply water in any part of the said area, and may authorise or require those undertakers to take such a supply from the applicants:
Provided that—
(a ) where the order requires the giving and taking of such a supply as aforesaid, paragraph 8 of the First Schedule to the principal Act (which provides that in certain circumstances an order shall be subject to special parliamentary procedure) shall apply thereto notwithstanding anything in section twenty-three of the principal Act; and
(b ) where the order authorises the giving and taking of such a supply, paragraph 23 of that Schedule (which provides that in certain other circumstances an order under section twelve of the principal Act approving an agreement for a bulk supply shall be subject to special parliamentary procedure) shall apply thereto as it applies to an order under the said section twelve approving an agreement to the like effect.
(4) Paragraph (ii) of the proviso to subsection (1) of the said section twenty-three (which requires the consent of certain local authorities and statutory water undertakers for an order under that section authorising applicants to supply water in any area) shall not apply to an order made by virtue of subsection (2) of this section.
5 Amendments of s. 14 of principal Act.
(1) No licence shall be required under subsection (3) of section fourteen of the principal Act (which prohibits the construction of boreholes for the purpose of abstracting underground water in certain areas except with the licence of the Minister) in respect of the carrying out of any experimental boring or other work for the purpose of ascertaining the presence of underground water or the quality or quantity of such water, if the work is carried out, with the consent of the Minister and in accordance with any conditions subject to which that consent is given,...
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