The department of environmental management shall have the power to acquire, maintain, and make available to the inhabitants of the metropolitan park district, and to the public generally, open spaces for exercise and recreation, and for intercommunication between them and adjacent streets and highways; and to this end, and acting as far as may be in consultation with the respective city and town councils and park commissioners of the cities and towns listed in § 32-2-1, the director of environmental management is hereby authorized to take in fee simple or otherwise, in the name and for the benefit of the state, by purchase, gift, or devise, or by eminent domain in such a manner as may now or hereafter be provided by the general assembly, lands and interests, estates, and rights therein, for the public use within the metropolitan park district, and to enter into written contracts for the conveyance thereof to the department, for those purposes and uses, and further, to improve, preserve, care for, and administer those public reservations, and also, in the discretion of the director, and upon such terms and conditions as he or she may approve, such other lands and interests, estates, and rights therein, or funds in trust, as may be entrusted, given, conveyed, or devised to the department or to the state by the United States or by cities, towns, corporations, or individuals for the general purposes of this chapter, or for any one or more of those purposes, as the grantor, donor, or devisor may designate; provided, however, that nothing in this chapter shall be construed to limit the existing rights of any city or town in relation to water supply purposes, or in any way obstruct or destroy the privilege of any such city or town to take advantage of those rights.