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143
COMBINED DRAINAGE.
The question of combined drainage has engaged the
attention of the Vestry during the year, and a definite
decision has been arrived at in connection therewith. The
Medical Officer brought up on August 4th, 1898, the
following report:—
A well-established theoretical principle in sanitation, is to
keep the drains of houses, as far as possible, outside;
and, carrying out this principle in practice, it is clear
that combined drainage may, with advantage, be allowed
in the case of several houses adjoining, and built
together in a terrace or row, under which conditions a
main combined drain would be laid at the rear, and into
this main combined drain any number of houses
separately taken, the drain of each individual house
being, where necessary, disconnected by means of a
separate intercepting trap and chamber, and separately
ventilated. The main combined drain at the rear would
discharge into a branch sewer in a side roadway, or be
turned into the sewer in the roadway in front of the
houses in question, either through an open passage-way
between two houses, or at the side of one house—but
not through and under one of the houses, unless absolutely
necessary, in which rare case the combined
main drain must be laid under proper conditions, e.g.,
with a manhole at the back and front of the house,
and the drain itself embedded in concrete, and its
joints made absolutely air- and water-tight.
When combined drainage is necessary, as in the abovementioned
case, the simplest form is for six (or less)
houses to be drained together, the main combined
drain being intercepted with intercepting chamber, and