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17
Water supply.
With regard to the water supply in the Hamlet it has
been ample and the quality equal to, and often superior,
to that of the other London companies, as shown by
the frequent analyses of both Professors Letheby and
Frankland.
There have been a few complaints of deficient supply,
but these have been satisfactorily attended to upon my
application to the Company. The principal defect under
the present intermittent system is the absence of a
Sunday supply. This is more especially felt in some of
the poorer districts, where the water is not turned on
until late in the day on Mondays.
This evil is greatly aggravated, and indeed mainly
caused, by want of sufficient and proper receptacles for
storage, the result being that a great excess more water
is wasted than used. The essential and only satisfactory
condition is a constant and pure supply—water, next to
air, is Nature's greatest antiseptic and purifier. If all
supplied was properly used, it would go far to destroy or
prevent the evils produced by some of the causes
already alluded to. The greater absence of impurity
from the water of the East London Company has been
shown by the periodical analyses but of course the public
willnot submit to a continuance of the presentsewage contamination
of the London waters any longer than will be
required for the application of the means of prevention,
and a constant and pure supply is the only allowable
condition of surrender.
Wherever practicable the Committee have ordered
water waste preventers to be provided, this is tantamount
to a constant supply.