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129
MISCELLANEOUS.
WATER SUPPLY OF TENEMENT HOUSES.—At the beginning
of 1908 the following Section (78) of the London County Council
(General Powers) Act, 1907, came into force:—"For the purposes
of Section 48 (Provisions as to house without proper water supply)
of the Public Health (London) Act, 1891, a tenement house shall be
deemed to be a house without a proper and sufficient supply of water
unless there shall be provided on the storey or one of the storeys
in which the rooms or lodgings in the separate occupation of each
family occupying such house are situate, a sufficient provision for
the supply of water for domestic purposes: Provided that with
respect to any building existing and in use as a tenement house at
the passing of this Act, this Section shall not (A) come into operation
until the first day of January, one thousand nine hundred and eight;
or (B) apply where the only storey or storeys on which a proper and
sufficient supply of water is not provided is or are a storey or
storeys (i) constructed at a height exceeding that to which the
Metropolitan Water Board may, for the time being, be required to
furnish a supply of water for domestic purposes, and (ii) to which
a supply of water for such purposes is not, at the passing of this
Act, being furnished by the said Board by agreement: Provided
also that this Section shall not apply to any tenement house in
respect of which it can be shown that any such provision for the
supply of water as aforesaid is not reasonably necessary."
A complete survey of his district was undertaken by each inspector
for the discovery of tenement houses in which an additional supply,
on one or more storeys, was considered reasonably necessary. Prior
to the service of notice calling for the supply, a visit was made by
the Medical Officer and the Chief Sanitary Inspector, and, as a
result, 145 notices issued. Instructions have been given that
from time to time additional notices shall be served in each district.
Of those issued, 107 had been complied with by December 31st,
1908. In the majority of these the only source of supply was
situated in the yard of the tenement, and the notice has called for
the introduction of a supply as near as possible to the middle storey.