Water Resources (Scotland) Act 2013: 2013 asp 5

Format:

Corporate Author:

Scotland Scottish Parliament

Publisher:

TSO (The Stationery Office)

This Act takes forward the Scottish Government's wish to ensure that Scotland makes every effort to utilise fully its abundant water resources. The Government has set out its vision of Scotland as a Hydro Nation - the first such nation in the world - a nation that manages its water environment to the best advantage, employing its knowledge and expertise effectively at home and internationally. The Act provides for the Scottish Ministers and Scottish Water to further the sustainable development of the value of Scotland's water resources, and for Ministers to control large-scale abstractions from the water environment. It places new duties upon Scottish Water to develop its assets and support renewable energy, and allows its subsidiaries to borrow money directly, rather than through Scottish Water. It gives Scottish Water powers to monitor and manage the quality of water in the water environment that is likely to be used for human consumption. It provides a new mechanism for Scottish Water to deal with temporary shortages of water supplies, replacing the system of drought orders under the Natural Heritage (Scotland) Act 1991 with a new system of water shortage orders. It also allows Scottish Water to protect the public sewerage network from certain substances and facilitates the maintenance of communal private sewage treatment works, as well as making minor changes to the functioning of the retail market for non-domestic water and sewerage services. It also repeals section 26 of the Water Environment and Water Services (Scotland) Act 2003.