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(31)
In consequence of our representation to the Company,
the schools were placed on a constant service during school
hours, and stand pipes were placed close to all model dwellings
in the district.
I suggested that stand-pipes should be placed in the crowded
parts of the district. This the Company did. We found
that in many of these parts the inhabitants had
no means of storage from day to day. We therefore applied to
the Water Company for storage jars, and the Company sent
about 3,000, which were distributed.
After the first month the emanations from the sewers was
very offensive from want of proper flushing in most parts of the
district. Your Committee therefore authorised your Surveyor
to purchase two large tanks in which canal water was used to
augment the flushing of the subsiduary sewers, with good effect.
A number of samples of water were sent to me from various
parts of the district, some of which were forwarded on to the
analyst. They were all found to be free from organic contamination.
It must be remembered that during the drought it was extremely
hot weather, we had a very large number of deaths from
diseases of the gastro-intestinal tract, and how far these were the
consequences of the short supply of water or to the excessive heat
and the consuming of over-ripe fruit it is impossible to say. I
do not think in a report of this kind it is my duty to go into
the matter of the cause of the drought, but one cannot help
being struck with the fact that since the last serious drought in
1895, the population has enormously increased in the Eastern
portion of Middlesex, and the question arises as to whether
the Water Company has made sufficient provision for that
increase, because it was expressly stated in the Report of the
Commissioners who enquired into the drought in 1895 that such
provision had been made at that time so as to prevent any future
repetition of the trouble.