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154
WATER SUPPLY TO TENEMENT HOUSES.
Sections 2 and 48 of the Public Health (London) Act provide
that where there is a constant supply of water, absence of proper
water fittings shall be deemed a nuisance, and that an occupied
house without a proper and sufficient supply of water shall be a
nuisance, liable to be dealt with summarily, and if it is a dwelling
house shall be deemed unfit for human habitation.
It has hitherto been considered that a single tap, accessible to
all the inmates of a tenement house, satisfied the statute. In a
case, however, heard at the Woolwich Police Court, the owner of
a three-storied tenement house was summoned for not providing
the tenants with a proper water supply, although there was a tap
in the yard, and the Magistrate made an order against the defendant
with £5 5s. costs.
The London County Council, by a circular letter, called the
attention of the Borough Councils to this case, and expressed a
hope that the various authorities would take all possible steps to
secure the provision of a proper and sufficient supply of water for
the tenants of every floor of a tenement house.
It was pointed out to the Committee that if it be desirable to
afford facilities for obtaining clean water on every floor, it is equally
desirable to provide sinks and down cast shafts to empty away refuse
waters from every floor.
At the Conference of Representatives of the Borough Councils,
held at the County Hall in July, 1904, a resolution was unanimously
adopted—
"That a draw-off tap from the rising main and a sink should
be provided on every floor of a tenement house."