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19
Drainage and Sewerage.
See Report, 1927.
The drainage of the Isolation Hospital, in view of the
extension, is giving rise to difficulties. The most satisfactory
solution would appear to be to run a sewer up the Beam
Valley. Into this could be run a sewer draining the Manor
Farm Estate, a plot at present disposing of its sewage by
pail closets and cesspools. A sewer laid in this valley would
no doubt, open up the land on the other side, and possibly,
could form part of a comprehensive scheme for sewage disposal
in connection with the building developments of neighbouring
authorities.
A certain number of houses have been approved for habitation
subject to their being drained into a cesspool to be
emptied by the occupants and to their being connected to a
sewer when laid. As the water supply is, in many cases,
obtained from surface wells sunk in the same parcel of land
as is used for the emptying of the cesspools, such an arrangement
is far from ideal.
Two cottages in Church Elm Lane were provided with new
sanitary conveniences in place of cesspools and have been
connected to the public sewer.
In the course of the year difficulties have arisen in connection
with the drainage of a factory in the southern part of the area,
the trade waste consisting of yeast cells, etc.. depositing and
causing an obstruction in the sewers. Further, the high content
albuminoid ammonia appreciably raised the figure in the
effluent from the sewage works, which was above the standard
permitted by the Port of London Authority to be discharged
into the river. The sewage works are to be extended, and for
this purpose, following a public enquiry, Mudland Farm was
purchased and a sum voted for the improvement of the sludge
disposal works. The extension will probably include one of
the Activated Sludge methods of treatment, in which case
it would appear advisable that the trade effluents from the
factory site should be run into a separate sewer and disposed
of in a plant different from that dealing with the domestic
sewage.
Arrangements have been made for the drainage of a block
of Dagenham houses on Ilford No. 1 section, hitherto draining
into Ilford, to drain into the Dagenham sewers, and also
for the drainage of the new Barking No. 12 section to be
disposed of at the Rainham works.
Nuisances have arisen in connection with combined drains:
the drainage of groups of shops being permitted under combined
drainage deeds. When blockage occurs in such drains,
difficulties arise in ascertaining where the responsibility lies,
and in one case where there was flooding, the Local Authority