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The Water Act 1989 (1989 c.15) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that reorganised the bodies responsible for all aspects of water within England and Wales. Whereas previous legislation, particularly the Water Act 1973, had focused on providing a single unifying body with responsibility for all water-related function within a river basin or series of river basins, this legislation divided those functions up again, with water supply, sewerage and sewage disposal being controlled by private companies, and the river management, land drainage and pollution functions becoming the responsibility of the National Rivers Authority. ==Background== The concept of a unified authority with responsibility for all of the water-related functions within a river basin or series of river basins dates from the late nineteenth century. A river conservancy bill was introduced into Parliament in 1878 by the Duke of Richmond, and the Council of the Society of Arts offered medals to those who could devise suitable watershed districts to aid such conservancy. A silver medal was awarded to Frederick Toplis for his plan to create 12 watershed districts, which covered similar areas to the Water Authorities created under the Water Act 1973. Each Distrcit would be run by commissioners, with powers to acquire all of the waterworks within their area, and to manage both them and the rivers for water supply and the prevention of flooding and pollution. He wrote that "every drop of water falling on their district should be more or less under their control from the time it falls on the land until it reaches the sea." Toplis's far-sighted ideas were not implemented immediately, but the first moves towards more widespread management of river basins in England and Wales were enshrined in the Land Drainage Act 1930. Although this was primarily concerned with flood prevention and land drainage, it created Catchment Boards with responsibility for the management of main rivers, and each was based around a river basin or group of river basins. The Catchment Boards only covered parts of England and Wales, but this changed in 1948, when the River Boards Act 1948 created 32 River Boards. Where Catchment Boards existed, their powers were inherited by the River Boards, and where they did not, they took over responsibility for flood prevention from local authorities. The River Boards had additional responsibilities concerning fisheries, the prevention of pollution and the gauging of rivers. They were in turn replaced by 27 River Authorities following the passing of the Water Resources Act 1963, each with additional duties to monitor water quality and protect water resources. The development of a national water supply policy occurred in parallel with these developments. The Water Act 1945 had recognised the need for central government to supervise the statutory suppliers of water, and to be involved in the difficult issues of water supply. It had also recognised that the supply of water to non-domestic consumers was part of an integrated policy, and had introduced the concept of abstraction licencing. In many areas, pollution of rivers by sewage was a serious problem, resulting from rapid expansion of population, and little incentive to invest in sewage treatment works. The Rivers (Prevention of Pollution) Act 1951 introduced discharge licensing, and with extra powers from a similar Act of 1961, tried to encourage local authorities to invest more in such works, but the Working Party on Sewage Disposal, which reported in 1970, concluded that there were over 3000 sewage treatment works which were performing inadequately. The Water Act 1973 created 10 Regional Water Authorities, covering England and Wales. They had responsibility for water supply, sewerage, sewage treatment, flood prevention, land drainage, the prevention of pollution, fisheries, and water abstraction. While it appeared that all water management functions were now handled by one body, and that Toplis's vision had been realised, Porter wrote in 1978 that this might not be the final word on water management, as the 1963 Act, which had been declared "a giant step forward in England's response to contemporary water problems" had only lasted for ten years. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Water Act 1989」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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