Introduction

The passage of the Water Resources Act of 1963 has given water management new meaning and impetus in Great Britain. This chapter describes and evaluates the policy and institutional aspects of the new British system of water management. The objective of the study is constrained in two principal ways. First, there are no effective criteria for measuring institutional adequacy. At best, institutional features or characteristics that favor water management operations can be identified. The second constraint is found in the limited investigations that have been possible. At the time the study was initiated in England, the Water Resources Act of 1963 had been passed but was not to take effect for another year, not until April 1965. The British employ some terminology not common in American water lexicon. For the convenience of the reader, six terms widely used throughout the monograph: conservation, water undertakers, abstraction, local authorities, precept, rates, and minister.