Law on the Water Authority No.18 of 1988 as amended by Law No.62 of 2001.

This Law consisting of 33 articles aims at establishing the Water Authority, chaired by the Minister of Water and Irrigation. Article 25 establishes that all water resources, whether they are surface or ground waters, regional waters, rivers or internal seas are considered State owned property and shall not be used or transferred except in compliance with this Law. The Water Authority has the following main responsibilities and tasks (i) survey and conseve the different water resources, and determine ways, means and priorities for their use, except the use for irrigation; (ii) develop exploitation programs, execute the works, and set up plans and programmes related to domestic and municipal waters and sanitation, including digging of productive wells, development of springs, treatment and desalination of waters; (iii) direct and regulate the construction of public and private wells, investigate water resources, and drill exploratory, reconnaisance and production wells, and license well drilling rigs and drillers; (iv) study, construct, maintain, and administer water and public wastewater projects and works; (v) preserve water and water basins, protect them from pollution, and control the safety of water and wastewater structures; (vi) carry out research and studies regarding water and public wastewater and publish the final findings and standards so as to generalize their application; (viii) issue permits to engineers and licensed professionals to perform public water and wastewater works and participate in organizing special training courses to qualify them; and (ix) regulate the uses of water, prevent its waste, and conserve its consumption.
The Authority shall have a Board of Directors with duties and responsibilities mainly related to (i) the setting and approval of water policies and the construction of water and public wastewater networks; (ii) the study of draft Regulations and their submition to the Council of Ministers for approval; (iii) annual budget; and (iv) recommendion to the Council of Ministers tariffs for connections, subscriptions, price rates and deposit fees.
Regarding all duties, responsibilities and obligations related to water and public sewerage, which were previously the responsibility of any governmental department, corporation or any public commission or municipality, article 23 states that they shall be transferred to the Authority that (i) stablishes specialized departments responsible for implementing, composed of a Water Council with representatives from the governmental and private sectors; (ii) provides prohibited areas as deemed necessary for its water and wastewater networks and the related buildings and construction; (iii) manufactures and produces commodities needed for the Authority’s water and wastewater works; (iv) ensures technical control and supervision regarding the construction, operation and maintenance of all water projects and public or private sewers; (v) keeps records, including detailed technical and financial information regarding the construction, maintenance and operation costs for all the Authority`s projects.
The Law prohibits (i) to carry out any works related to water and wastewater, if these works are considered to be within the sole responsibility of the Authority; (ii) to sell water from any source, or grant or transport it, without obtaining in advance the written approval of the Authority; (iii) to use any water resources that are not under the management or supervision of the Authority, in excess of personal or domestic needs; (iv) to establish any buildings or construction on State owned land within the prohibited land strip; (v) to cause damage to any of the Authority`projects, or ruined or destroyed any water resources or the Authority’s public sewers; (vi) to pollute any water resource, which is under the management or supervision of the Authority directly or indirectly, or cause its pollution and fail to remove the causes thereof within the period fixed by the Authority; (vii) to drill unlicensed ground water wells or violated the conditions of the issued license.