Public Utilities Act
(CHAPTER 261)

(Original Enactment: Act 8 of 2001)

REVISED EDITION 2002
(31st July 2002)
An Act to reconstitute the Public Utilities Board and for matters connected therewith.
[1st April 2001]
PART I
PRELIMINARY
Short title
1.  This Act may be cited as the Public Utilities Act.
Interpretation
2.  In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires —
“apparatus” means any water apparatus, equipment or accessory and includes all apparatus, devices and fittings in which pipes are used or of which they form a part;
“approved person” means a person given written approval under section 41 to supply piped water for human consumption;
“authorised officer” means an officer of the Board authorised by the Board for the purposes of this Act;
“Board” means the Public Utilities Board reconstituted under the Public Utilities Act (Cap. 261, 1996 Ed.) in force before 1st April 2001 and continued by section 3;
“Chairman” means the Chairman of the Board and includes any temporary Chairman of the Board;
“Chief Executive” means the Chief Executive of the Board and includes any temporary Chief Executive of the Board;
“consumer” means a person who is supplied with water or whose premises are for the time being connected for the purpose of a supply of water with any system of supply;
“Deputy Chairman” means the Deputy Chairman of the Board and includes any temporary Deputy Chairman of the Board;
“installation” includes any plant or apparatus designed for the collection, production, supply or use of water;
“licensed water service worker” means a person who holds a valid water service worker licence permitting him to perform such water service work as is specified in the licence;
“main” means a pipe through which water is or can be supplied, whether the pipe is in use or not;
“master meter” means a meter registering water, all or part of which is subsequently registered by one or more sub-meters;
“member” means any member of the Board;
“occupier” means the person in occupation of any premises and includes the person having the charge, management or control of the premises either on his own account or as agent of another person, but does not include a lodger;
“premises” includes buildings, structures, streets, lands, waters, tenements, easements of any tenure, whether State land or not, whether open or enclosed, whether built on or not, whether public or private, and whether maintained or not under statutory authority;
“sewage” and “sewerage system” have the same meanings as in the Sewerage and Drainage Act (Cap. 294);
“street” includes —
(a)any road, highway, square, footway or passage, whether a thoroughfare or not, over which the public has a right of way, the way over any public bridge;
(b)any road, footway or passage, open court or open alley, used or intended to be used as a means to access to 2 or more holdings, whether the public has a right of way thereover or not; and
(c)all channels, sewers, drains, tunnels, ditches and reserves at the side of a street;
“water installation” means any water-retaining structure, pumping station, pipe, water fitting, apparatus or appliance used for the supply of water;
“water service installation”  —
(a)in relation to water supplied by the Board, means any installation within any premises including any pipe, water fitting, apparatus or appliance, connecting a meter to the premises and used for the supply of the Board’s water thereto, but does not include any installation for the disposal of any waste, sullage water or sewage;
(b)in relation to water supplied by an approved person, means —
(i)any installation within any premises including any pipe, water fitting, apparatus or appliance used for the supply of the approved person’s water thereto; or
(ii)if a meter is provided, any installation within any premises including any pipe, water fitting, apparatus or appliance, connecting the meter to the premises and used for the supply of the approved person’s water thereto,
but does not include any installation for the disposal of any waste, sullage water or sewage, or any installation or water installation of the Board;
“water service work” means any work performed or carried out on any water service installation and includes the designing, installing, constructing, erecting or repairing thereof or the altering of the structure thereof or the replacing of any part thereof or the adding of any part thereto or the carrying out of any work thereon for the maintenance thereof;
“water service worker” means any person whose trade or occupation requires or includes the personal performance by him of water service work or a person who is otherwise competent or qualified personally to perform water service work;
“water service worker licence” means a licence granted under section 40(2).