Water Act 1945

22 Acquisition of land and execution of works for protection of water.

(1) For the purpose of any provision of this Act conferring power on statutory water undertakers to acquire land for the purposes of their undertaking, there shall be deemed to be included among those purposes the purpose of protecting against pollution any water, whether on the surface or underground, which belongs to the undertakers or which they are for the time being authorised to take.

(2) Statutory water undertakers may on any land belonging to them, or over or in which they have acquired the necessary easements or rights, construct and maintain drains, sewers, watercourses, catchpits and other works for intercepting, treating or disposing of any foul water arising or flowing upon that land, or for otherwise preventing water which belongs to the undertakers or which they are for the time being authorised to take from being polluted:

Provided that—

(a) before constructing any such works, the undertakers shall, if the proposed works will affect any watercourse in a catchment area or fishery district or which is subject to the jurisdiction of a navigation authority or rivers board, consult with the catchment board, fishery board, navigation authority or rivers board concerned;

(b) nothing in this subsection shall authorise the undertakers to intercept or take any water which a navigation authority are authorised to take or use for the purposes of their undertaking, without the consent of that navigation authority.

(3) Any statutory water undertakers proposing to construct any drain, sewer or watercourse for the purposes mentioned in the last foregoing subsection may, with the consent of the highway authority concerned, which may be given subject to such conditions as the authority think fit, carry the drain, sewer or watercourse under, across or along any street, whether within or outside their limits of supply, and such statutory provisions with respect to the breaking open of streets as are applicable to the undertakers shall, with any necessary modifications and adaptations, apply accordingly.

(4) A consent required for the purposes of either of the two last foregoing subsections shall not be unreasonably withheld nor shall any unreasonable condition be attached to such a consent, and any question whether or not such a consent is unreasonably withheld or whether any condition which an authority seek to impose is unreasonable, shall be referred to an arbitrator to be appointed, in default of agreement, by the Minister.