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23
Other reasons connected with flushing arrangements have probably
more relation to this point than the question of the shape, etc.,
of the Trap.
Further, it is very little satisfaction to the householder and the
public to learn about these badly designed appliances after a costly
system, forced on them by law, has proved a failure, and aggravated
original conditions by stopping up their drains and flooding their
forecourts and areas with sewage.
I submit we are morally under some obligation, if this practice
is to continue, to be at least able to guarantee that the thing we are
insisting upon by pains and penalties shall do reasonably what is
claimed for it, and shall not in any circumstances be capable of
causing a most offensive and foul nuisance to recur at short or long
intervals.
In other words, I submit that the advocates of the Intercepting
theory should be asked to produce something which in practice will
be free from the gross defects of present systems. Owners of property
cannot be continually requested to be removing nuisances
caused by these repeated stoppages.
As the executive officer of a local Authority I can say we have
experienced difficulty in this connection. Owners of property and
their Surveyors have resisted proceedings taken to enforce the provision
of Intercepting Traps and Chambers which they allege are
costly to provide, ineffective as to alleged safeguards, and, in many
cases, are the direct cause of serious nuisance.
Another point I submit is the absurdity of insisting upon the
same rigid requirements for say the drain of a small two-roomed
cottage (with simply a single sanitary convenience and gully both
situated external to the dwelling) as applies to a large hotel or institution
drained by an elaborate system serving a series of sanitary
conveniences, baths, sinks, etc., and together forming an intricate
combination bearing no comparison to a cottage. Some consideration,
I suggest, should be given to varying circumstances and to
conditions of size, situation, formation and use. At present the same
rigid requirements apply all round, whether it be Hotel Cecil or a
two-roomed hut.