{
  "url": "https://openlegislation.uk/water-and-sewerage-services-northern-ireland-order-1973-repealed/article-2",
  "json_url": "https://openlegislation.uk/water-and-sewerage-services-northern-ireland-order-1973-repealed/article-2.json",
  "legislation": "nisi/1973/70",
  "legislation_title": "Water and Sewerage Services (Northern Ireland) Order 1973 (REPEALED)",
  "legislation_url": "https://openlegislation.uk/water-and-sewerage-services-northern-ireland-order-1973-repealed",
  "path": "article/2",
  "kind": "article",
  "number": "2",
  "heading": "Interpretation",
  "text": "(1) The Interpretation Act (Northern Ireland) 1954 1954 c.33 shall apply to Article 1 and the following provisions of this Order as it applies to an Act of the Parliament of Northern Ireland.\n(2 ) In this Order—\nthe Appeals Commission has the meaning assigned to it by Article 7(1);\nauthorised officer means a person authorised by the Ministry in writing either generally or specially to act in matters of any specified kind or in any specified matter;\ndomestic purposes, in relation to a supply of water to any premises, means the purposes of human consumption, cooking and washing necessary for human health or hygiene but does not include the purposes of the business of a laundry;\ndomestic sewage, in relation to any premises, means—\n(a) the contents of lavatories; and\n(b) water which has been used for cooking or washing necessary for human health or hygiene, not being water used for the business of a laundry or for a business of preparing food or drink;\ndrain, in relation to any premises, means any pipe or drain used solely for or in connection with the drainage of one building or of any buildings or yards appurtenant to buildings within the same curtilage;\nfood production premises means premises used for the purposes of a business of preparing food or drink for consumption otherwise than on the premises;\nfood production purposes shall be construed in accordance with paragraph (3);\nfoul water means any water contaminated by domestic sewage or trade effluent;\nhouse means a dwelling-house, whether a private dwelling-house or not, and includes any part of a building if that part is occupied as a separate dwelling-house;\nlocal authority means the council of any county, county or other borough, or of an urban or rural district, or a joint board constituted for every united district within the meaning of section 12 of the Public Health (Ireland) Act 1878 1878 c.52 or section 7 of the Water Supplies and Sewerage Act (Northern Ireland) 1945 1945 c.17, or the Belfast City and District Water Commissioners;\nLondonderry Area has the same meaning as in the Foyle Fisheries Act (Northern Ireland) 1952 1952 c.5;\nmain means a pipe vested in the Ministry, being a pipe for the purpose of giving or intended to give a general supply of water as distinct from a supply to an individual consumer and includes any apparatus used in connection with such a pipe;\nmaintain shall be construed in accordance with section 147 of the Local Government Act (Northern Ireland) 1972 1972 c.9;\nmicro-organism includes any microscopic biological entity which is capable of replication;\nthe Minister means the Minister of Development;\nthe Ministry means the Ministry of Development;\noccupier means the person in occupation or having the charge, management or control of premises either on his own account or as the agent of another person;\nowner means a person who is for the time being receiving a rent of not less than two-thirds of the net annual value of any land whether on his own account or as agent or trustee for any other person or who, if the land were let at such a rent, would receive it;\nprescribed means prescribed by regulations;\nprivate sewage treatment works means a sewage treatment works which is not vested in the Ministry;\nprivate sewer means a sewer not vested in the Department;\nprivate supply means, subject to paragraph (4), a supply of water provided otherwise than by the Department (including a supply provided for the purposes of the bottling of water);\nprivate water supply works means a water supply works which is not vested in the Ministry;\nprovide shall be construed in accordance with section 147 of the Local Government Act (Northern Ireland) 1972;\npublic body has the same meaning as in section 148 of the Local Government Act (Northern Ireland) 1972;\nroad means a road maintainable at the public expense;\nservice pipe means, subject to paragraph (5), so much of a pipe which is, or is to be, connected with a main for supplying water from that main to any premises—\n(a) as is or is to be subject to water pressure from that main; or\n(b) as would be so subject but for the closing of some valve,\nand includes part of any service pipe;\nsewage means domestic sewage, surface water and trade effluent;\nsewage treatment works means any works, apparatus, or plant used for the treatment or disposal of sewage and includes a septic tank;\nsewer does not include a drain as defined in this Article but, subject to that, includes all sewers, pipes or drains vested in the Ministry which are used for the drainage of buildings and yards appertaining to premises and includes any apparatus used in connection with such a sewer;\nsubstance includes micro-organisms and any natural or artificial substance or other matter, whether it is in solid or liquid form or in the form of a gas or vapour;\nsurface water means the run-off of rain water from roofs and any paved ground surface within the curtilage of premises;\nDefinition rep. by 1984 c. 12\ntrade effluent means any liquid either with or without particles of matter in suspension therein which is wholly or in part produced in the course of any trade or industry carried out at trade premises, including trade waste waters or waters heated in the course of any trade or industry, and in relation to any trade premises, means any such liquid which is produced in the course of any trade or industry carried on at those premises;\ntrade or industry for the purposes of the definition of trade effluent includes agriculture, horticulture and scientific research or experiment and the carrying on of a hospital or a nursing home and for the purposes of the definition of trade premises includes premises used or intended to be used in the whole or in part for the carrying on of agriculture, horticulture or scientific research or experiment, or as a hospital or nursing home;\ntrade premises means any premises used or intended to be used for carrying on any trade or industry;\ntransferred provision has the same meaning as in the Interpretation Act (Northern Ireland) 1954 1954 c.33;\nunderground strata has the same meaning as in the Water (Northern Ireland) Order 1999;\nwater fittings includes pipes (other than mains), taps, cocks, valves, ferrules, meters, cisterns, baths, water closets, soil pans and other similar apparatus used in connection with the supply and use of water;\nwater supply works means any works, apparatus or plant used for the supply, distribution or treatment of water;\nwaterway has the same meaning as in the Water (Northern Ireland) Order 1999.\nwholesome shall be construed subject to the provisions of any regulations made under Article 3C;\n(3) In this Order references to food production purposes are references to the manufacturing, processing, preserving or marketing purposes with respect to food or drink for which water supplied to food production premises may be used.\n(4) In this Order for the purposes of references to a private supply, or to supplying water by means of a private supply, water shall be treated as supplied to any premises not only where it is supplied from outside those premises, but also where it is abstracted, for the purpose of being used or consumed on those premises, from a source which is situated on the premises themselves; and for the purposes of this paragraph water shall be treated as used on any premises where it is bottled on those premises for use or consumption elsewhere.\n(5) In this Order references to a pipe, including references to a main, a drain or a sewer, shall include references to a tunnel or conduit which serves or is to serve as the pipe in question and to any accessories for the pipe; and, accordingly, references to the laying of a pipe shall include references to the construction of such a tunnel or conduit, to the construction or installation of any such accessories and to the making of a connection between one pipe and another.\n(6) For the purposes of this Order a service pipe or drain shall be treated as connected with a main or sewer even if the connection is an indirect connection made by virtue of a connection with one or more than one other service pipe or, as the case may be, drain or private sewer.",
  "extent": "N.I.",
  "status": null,
  "version": "current",
  "annotations": [
    {
      "type": "F",
      "label": "F1",
      "text": "functions transf. so far as relating to functions under f009"
    },
    {
      "type": "F",
      "label": "F2",
      "text": "1993 NI 16"
    },
    {
      "type": "F",
      "label": "F3",
      "text": "Functions of Minister transf. to Head of D/Env. and of Ministry to D/Env., SRO (NI) 1973/504"
    },
    {
      "type": "F",
      "label": "F4",
      "text": "1999 NI 6"
    }
  ],
  "outstanding_effects": [],
  "provenance": {
    "source": "legislation.gov.uk",
    "source_url": "https://www.legislation.gov.uk/nisi/1973/70/article/2",
    "retrieved_at": "2026-10-29T04:54:35.237450+00:00"
  },
  "licence": "Open Government Licence v3.0",
  "licence_url": "https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/",
  "attribution": "Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives."
}