Summary and implications
This briefing provides an overview of ownership of, rights and
responsibilities in relation to and development works to land
adjoining, above or including watercourses.
Watercourses
What is a watercourse?
A watercourse is any surface or subterranean natural or
artificial channel through which water flows, e.g. a beck, brook,
culvert, ditch, mill stream or river.
What is an "ordinary" watercourse and who manages
them?
An ordinary watercourse is every river, stream, ditch, drain,
culvert, dyke, sewer (other than a public sewer) and passage,
through which water flows, but which does not form part of a main
river. Defra makes the decision as to which watercourses are main
rivers in England, the Welsh Government doing so in Wales. In an
internal drainage district area (about 10 per cent of the country),
where the Environment Agency (EA) acts as the internal drainage
board, it undertakes ordinary watercourse regulation. Where the
