Section 1: In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires–

“Board” means the Board of Directors appointed under section 3; “catchment area” means any area of land or water from which water contributes to the supply of any waterworks and the demarcation of which has been agreed between the Company and the relevant local authority; “Company” means the Sierra Leone Water Company; “Chairman” means the Chairman of the Board; “community” means a group of households who refer to their settlement by the same name; “community management” means the management by one or more communities or sections of these communities of their safe water supply and related sanitation facilities including the ownership, planning, operation, maintenance and collection of revenue to pay recurrent costs; “financial year” means a period of 12 months corresponding with the government’s financial year; “fire authority” means the National Fire Force established by the National Fire Force Act, (Act No. 8 of 1980) 1980; “hygiene” means conditions necessary for maintaining personal health as thy may affect water use; “local authority” means a public body created under the Local Government Act, 2004, exercising authority within a specified area or space; “mains” means a pipe transferred to or laid by the Company for the purpose of giving a general supply of water as distinct from a supply to individual consumers and includes any apparatus used in connection with such a pipe; “Managing-Director” means the person appointed under section 29; “Minister” means the minister responsible for water resources and “ministry” shall be construed accordingly; “occupier” includes the person in occupation of a part of or the whole premises but does not include a lodger; “owner” includes the holder of any premises whether under licence or otherwise, or the immediate landlord of any premises; “premises” includes messuages, buildings, lands, easements and hereditaments of any tenure, whether open or enclosed, and whether public or private; “public fountain” means any fountain, tap, standpipe, valve or any apparatus used or intended to be used for or in connection with the supply of water to the public from any waterworks; “rural community” means a community with a population of less than 5000 people or any other figure as the Minister may by statutory instrument prescribe; “sanitation” means waste management education and disposal of faecal matter as they affect water use; 2 3 Interpretation. “service pipe” means any pipe, valve, cistern or other apparatus used for supplying water from a main to any premises, subject to water pressure from that main or would be so but for the closing of some tap, or part of any such pipe, and includes stopcocks and other necessary fittings; “small town” means a community that is not rural but is a small urban community that has adopted community management of its water supply system; “specified area” includes Bo City, Kenema City, Koidu Town (New Sembehun), Makeni City, Yengema Town and Lungi; more particularly described in the First Schedule and any other area as the Minister may by statutory instrument prescribe; “special reserve fund” means the fund referred to under section 42; “street” includes a highway, public bridge, road, land, pedestrian walk–way, alley, passage or other thoroughfare or open space over which the public have a right of passage and whether or not there are houses in the street; “water-related sanitation” includes issues related to control of stagnant pools around water facilities, seepage of faecal matter into groundwater, construction of septage, cesspools and septic tanks as they affect water supply; “water tariffs and charges” means the water tariffs and charges which the Company with the approval of the Electricity and Water Regulatory Commission is authorised to demand and collect for the supply of water; 4 5 “waterworks” includes reservoirs, dams, tanks, cisterns, tunnels, treatment plants, conduits, aqueducts, mains, pipes, fountains, valves, pumps, engines and all structures or appliances used or constructed for the storage, conveyance, supply, measurement or regulation of water, which are vested in the Company or which are acquired, used or constructed by or on behalf of the Company; PART II- CONTINUATION OF THE SIERRA LEONE WATER COMPANY