Water Services Act 2007
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General functions of water services authorities in relation to provision of water services. |
32.— (1) A water services authority may, and shall when directed by the Minister, take all necessary measures to ensure compliance with its obligations under section 31 and for the purposes of carrying out its functions under section 31 , whether within or outside its functional area, including— | |
(a) the abstraction, impoundment, treatment, purchase or supply of water for drinking or any other purpose, in accordance with relevant provisions of this Act or any other enactment, or regulations made under this or any other enactment, | ||
(b) the provision, operation or maintenance of sewers and waste water collection and treatment facilities, in accordance with relevant provisions of this Act or any other enactment, or regulations made under this or any other enactment, | ||
(c) the construction or maintenance, or arrangement for the construction and maintenance of, waterworks or waste water works, | ||
(d) the undertaking of such work as is necessary to provide such waterworks or waste water works as may be required, | ||
(e) purchasing or obtaining premises or wayleaves, | ||
(f) the installation and maintenance of meters, or otherwise measuring the volume or rate of flow of water supplies or discharges to waste water works, | ||
(g) monitoring the quality of water supplies at any point or points, | ||
(h) monitoring the quality of waste water at any point or points, | ||
(i) treatment, reuse or disposal of by-products arising from the treatment of water or waste water, | ||
(j) without prejudice to the State Authorities (Public Private Partnership Arrangements) Act 2002 , entering into an agreement with any person in relation to or for the provision of, whether by that person or jointly with that person, water services in part or all of its functional area or elsewhere as appropriate, | ||
(k) without prejudice to the State Authorities (Public Private Partnership Arrangements) Act 2002 , entering into an agreement or arrangement with any person for the provision of water services to that person, including in relation to assigning capacity in a waterworks or reserving capacity in a waste water works for the provision of water services to that person, | ||
(l) authorising, controlling, monitoring or supervising the provision of water services by any other person within its functional area, | ||
(m) carrying out all such surveys, research, analysis, monitoring or undertaking any other action which may be necessary for the purposes of its functions under this section, | ||
(n) the provision of guidance, advice or information to other persons in relation to water services, | ||
(o) entering into such contracts or other arrangements as it considers necessary or expedient for the use, purchase, or lease of any buildings, premises, materials, services, machinery or other apparatus, or | ||
(p) taking waterworks or waste water works provided by other persons in charge. | ||
(2) The Minister may make regulations in relation to the undertaking by a water services authority of any of the functions in subsection (1), or for the provision of water services by an authorised provider of water services or a person providing water services jointly with or on behalf of a water services authority or an authorised provider of water services. | ||
(3) Without prejudice to the generality of subsection (2), regulations under this section may make provision for any or all of the following: | ||
(a) drinking water quality and waste water quality standards, including as the case may be, exemption or derogation from such standards in specified circumstances and subject to specified conditions; | ||
(b) duties of persons providing water services; | ||
(c) specifying the points at which compliance with standards under paragraph (a) will be measured, and limiting the obligations placed on any person by regulations under paragraph (a) in relation to the provision of drinking water to a specified quality standard in cases where non-compliance is as a result of defects in the internal distribution system of a premises, or specified classes of premises; | ||
(d) provision of information or advice for the purpose of protecting human health or the environment; | ||
(e) performance standards for the provision of water services; | ||
(f) operational procedures; | ||
(g) asset management planning; | ||
(h) training requirements for staff; | ||
(i) requirements in relation to the monitoring and supervision of water services to establish compliance with prescribed standards, including frequency of monitoring, monitoring standards and monitoring procedures, additional monitoring in specified circumstances, and, appropriate action where monitoring results indicate a failure to meet specified standards, and such action may include the immediate investigation of the cause of the failure, remedial measures to be taken, the provision of public information and advice, such restriction of services as may be necessary for the protection of human health and the environment, and the timescale for undertaking such action; | ||
(j) standard methods of analysis; | ||
(k) laboratory requirements; | ||
(l) record keeping; | ||
(m) supervision and control of the provision of water services and water services infrastructure; | ||
(n) control of the supply of water; | ||
(o) source protection; | ||
(p) water conservation; | ||
(q) the nature and form of any agreement entered into by a water services authority under subsection (1); | ||
(r) measures to facilitate the provision of water supplies for fire-fighting or other public health and safety purposes including the provision of notices to assist in the location of fire hydrants; | ||
(s) requirements to prevent risk to human health from contamination of water intended for human consumption by substances or materials, or associated impurities, in new installations for the treatment or distribution of water; | ||
(t) requirements to ensure the efficiency or effectiveness of treatment systems or disinfection procedures for water, and to limit any residual effects on the quality of water intended for human consumption to specified limits consistent with ensuring fitness for human consumption without compromising the disinfection; | ||
(u) requirements to ensure the efficiency and effectiveness of treatment systems or disinfection procedures for waste water; | ||
(v) provision of adequate and up-to-date information on the quality of water intended for human consumption; | ||
(w) procedures for dealing with consumer complaints; | ||
(x) measures to protect public health or the environment; or | ||
(y) related and ancillary matters. | ||
(4) Measures taken to implement regulations under subsection (2) shall not have the effect of allowing, directly or indirectly, any— | ||
(a) deterioration in the existing quality of water intended for human consumption, or | ||
(b) increase in pollution of waters used for the production of water intended for human consumption. | ||
(5) It is an offence to contravene a regulation made under subsection (2). | ||
(6) Measures taken in relation to failure to meet prescribed drinking water quality standards shall— | ||
(a) be prioritised having regard, amongst other matters, to the extent to which the relevant parametric values have been exceeded and to the potential danger to human health arising, and | ||
(b) in any event, be taken as soon as possible. | ||
(7) Regulations under subsection (2) which provide for exemption of specified supplies from prescribed drinking water quality standards shall provide to the effect that— | ||
(a) the population concerned shall be informed of the exemption, and of any action that can be taken to protect human health from adverse effects resulting from any contamination of the water supply, and | ||
(b) where a potential danger to human health arising from the quality of a relevant water supply is apparent, the population concerned shall be given appropriate advice promptly, | ||
and such regulations may provide for such measures as may be necessary to give full effect to those requirements. | ||
(8) Regulations under subsection (2) which provide for a derogation from prescribed drinking water quality standards shall provide to the effect that— | ||
(a) the population affected shall be informed promptly in an appropriate manner of the derogation and the conditions which govern it, and | ||
(b) where necessary, advice is given to particular population groups for which a derogation could present a special risk, | ||
and such regulations may provide for such measures as may be necessary to give full effect to those requirements. | ||
(9) In so far as regulations under subsection (2) limit the obligation placed on any person in relation to the provision of water for human consumption which meets specified quality standards, such regulations shall provide that where there is nevertheless non-compliance or a risk of non-compliance with such standards, then— | ||
(a) either— | ||
(i) appropriate measures shall be taken to ensure compliance or reduce or eliminate the risk of non-compliance, including advising premises owners affected of any possible remedial action they could take, or | ||
(ii) other measures shall be taken, including appropriate additional treatment in order to change the nature or properties of the water prior to its supply so as to reduce or eliminate the risk of the water not complying with the specified quality standards, | ||
and | ||
(b) the consumers concerned shall be duly informed and advised of any possible additional remedial action which they should take, | ||
and such regulations may provide for such measures as may be necessary to give full effect to those requirements. | ||
(10) Regulations under subsection (2) may provide for their application to any person who, although not providing water services is nevertheless supplying water for human consumption as part of a commercial or public activity in circumstances where that water is from that person’s own private supply and has not been supplied to him or her in the first instance— | ||
(a) by a water services authority, | ||
(b) by an authorised provider of water services, | ||
(c) by a person providing water services jointly with or on behalf of a water services authority or an authorised provider of water services, or | ||
(d) in bottles or containers, | ||
and references to “water services” in this section may, where the context permits, include such water supplied for human consumption by such persons. | ||
(11) For the purposes of subsections (7) and (8), and notwithstanding section 19 , the population concerned may also be informed by means of— | ||
(a) an advertisement in a newspaper circulating in the area, | ||
(b) an announcement broadcast on a radio or television channel generally available in the area, | ||
(c) an announcement made available on the internet, or | ||
(d) such other manner as the Minister may direct. | ||
(12) In this section “ derogation ” and “ population ” have the same meaning as they have in Council Directive 98/83/EC of 3 November 1998 on the quality of water intended for human consumption 14 . | ||