View report page

47
drinking water are properly supervised and have shown no sign of
deterioration.
Water from one of these wells is used by the Metropolitan Water
Board to supplement the public water supply and is subjected to
daily tests by that Authority for purity and palpability. Water
from the other well is regularly tested by the commercial firm
concerned but a further 2 samples from this well were obtained by
the Food Inspector. Both proved to be bacteriologically
satisfactory.
Scavenging and Refuse Disposal.—The collection of refuse
in the Borough is under the control of the Borough Engineer who
has kindly supplied me with the following information:—
"During 1951 the amount of house and trade refuse and street
sweepings collectcd amounted to 19,878 tons and 1,748 tons
respectively, the greater portion of which was tipped into barges
alongside the jetty at the Council's Tunnel Avenue Depot and taken
down the river to controlled refuse tips in the Thames Estuary.
The increase in tonnage over the previous year is accounted for by
the further housing development taking place in the Borough,
which would have been more noticeable had the Salvage Scheme
(mentioned later) not been in operation.
The Council, continuing its policy of modernising its refuse
collection vehicles took delivery of one of the special type vehicles
and progress has been made in adapting dust chutes to hold the
refuse containers operated in conjunction with this vehicle. The
scheme has been adopted at the various hospitals and housing
estates in the Borough.
The Council agreed early in the year, in view of the National
economic conditions, to resume the collection of waste paper and
rags and this was put in operation on the 30th April. The scheme
adopted by the Council embodied the payment of a bonus to the
employees, dependent upon the amount of material collected, and
during the year in question this service has proceeded on a
satisfactory basis, both to the Council and to the employees.
The collection of kitchen waste still continues and the same
remarks reported last year still apply.
Further progress was made in connection with the Joint Refuse
Disposal Scheme, but it is anticipated that it will be some time
before this can be finally settled and put into operation.
A scheme was formulated to deal with the refuse from the
Borough should an emergency arise, resulting in this not being
disposed of through the usual channels, but fortunately the need for
operating this did not arise."