ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the substantive legal powers for water management while providing a descriptive analysis of both the organizational structure and the financial arrangements. Prior to the Water Resources Act of 1963, not only were the legal authorities relating to the collection of basic hydrologic data highly fragmented, but there was little recognition of the need for planning development projects and other actions designed to enlarge the capacity of water resources. The establishment of minimum acceptable flows (MAF) seems likely to occupy a central place in British water management. The determination of MAF may become one of the most critical and sensitive decisions the institutional system has to make. A new rivers act of that year known as the Rivers (Prevention of Pollution) Act was passed and served as the basic pollution control statute until 1951. The 1876 Act declared it illegal to put into any river or stream solid refuse, rubbish, sewage, or poisonous or noxious industrial wastes.
