View report page

26
in the construction of certain new reservoirs which had resulted from the action of
the London County Council. The company were both able and willing to give a
sufficient supply for domestic purposes, the quantity of water at that time being
pumped into the mains was stated to be at the rate of 30 gallons per head per diem.
The water was on for some 3 or 4 hours daily, and consumers were being warned to
store a sufficient quantity for their domestic wants. Stress was laid upon the necessity
of receptacles for storing water being provided.
It is hardly necessary to point out that where the effective action of domestic
sanitary appliances, the flushing of drains and the removal of sewage depend upon a
proper and sufficient supply of water, a scarcity of this indispensable fluid is fraught
with serious danger to the community.
In consequence of the hardship and inconvenience resulting from the failure on
the part of the Water Company to give a constant supply of water, on August 22nd,
a Conference of Vestries and District Boards within the area supplied by the East
London Water.works Company was held at the Town Hall, Hackney; Bethnal Green,
Hackney, Limehouse. St. George.in.the.East, Poplar, Mile End and Shoreditch
sending delegates. Shoreditch was represented by Major Wenborn, J.P., Messrs.
Verinder, Winkler and Hurlin, together with the Vestry's Surveyor and Medical Officer
of Health.
The conference resolved to request the London County Council, being the Metropolitan
Authority to take action against the company, to compel them to carry out
their obligations, and a deputation was appointed to wait upon the Council and also
upon the Local Government Board, and the following requisition, signed by 20
inhabitant ratepayers in accordance with Section 9 of the Metropolis Water Supply
Act, 1852, was sent to the Local Government Board:—
"We, the undersigned inhabitants, householders, paying rents for, and
supplied with water by the East London Water.works Company, hereby
call the attention of the Local Government Board to the failure of the
company to carry out their obligations to supply a sufficient quantity
of water for domestic purposes, and request the Board in pursuance of
the powers conferred upon them by Section 9 of the Metropolitan Water
Act, 1852 (15 & 16 Vic. Cap. 84), to appoint a competent person to
enquire into and concerning the grounds of such complaint, and to
execute such powers as shall secure a supply of water to the inhabitants
of London within the district of the above company."
The result of the meetings of the Conference was a Local Government enquiry
"as to the circumstances which occasioned the deficiency of water supply in the
Metropolitan area comprised in the district of the East London Waterworks
Company, the effects of the deficient water supply as regards the public health and
the means which should be adopted with the view of preventing a recurrence of any
such deficiency."