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44
It must be here stated that during the whole period of the last
scarcity of water the Hackney Vestry through a joint Committee of
their General Purposes and Public Health Committees did much
to mitigate the inconvenience of the short service and to prevent
those serious consequences to the public health which necessarily
arise where there is a deficiency of water for domestic and sanitary
purposes, by the distribution of water and disinfectants by water
carts during all hours of the day, and also by supplying many
thousands of jars to those premises where no means of storage had
been provided.
It will be remembered that the failure of the year 1895 was the
subject of a Local Government Board enquiry and report.
In their report the Commissioners appointed to conduct the
enquiry state amongst other things:
" That steps have already been taken by the East London
Water Company which should in our opinion afford sufficient
storage of water to meet any deficiency in the supply of water
within their district for many years to come."
The fallacy of such a conclusion was manifest the following
year, when the constant service was again intermitted and again
last year when the interruption continued 16 weeks
It is not my intention to discuss the causes of these recurring
failures but certain questions have arisen during the last failure
which have a direct bearing upon the public health of the district
of Hackney; and it will be expected that I should make such
comments as the questions merit in my Annual Report.
One question which has assumed great importance, especially
from the company's point of view, has been that of the provision
of storage cisterns in houses to contain a sufficient supply of water
for domestic purposes while the water is cut off.
In the first place it may be assumed that the question of
domestic storage of water would never have been raised by the
company and their friends had the company been able to maintain
a constant service.