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GENERAL REPORT. 13
the water supplies. It is well known that at present, owing
to unsound and badly planned fittings, there is a vast
waste of water and of the pumping power required to
lift that water. This waste of water, in the event of
long drought or other accident, could not be at once
stopped, and it might put the water supplies of London
in peril. Such waste should not be allowed to continue.
This matter is entirely apart from the question of who
should be the authorities to administer the water supplies
of London. In order to stop this waste, misuse, and risk
of contaminating the public supplies, it is essential that
well-designed fittings of approved materials and construction
be insisted upon, and that the Water Authority
control "the communication pipe" up to the point at
which it discharges the public supply water into the
consumers' cisterns. This control is necessary, in order to
exclude the possibility of the reflux of polluted water into
the public mains; it is necessary also in order to prevent
the loss of vast quantities of public water, and to prevent
damage to the consumer's house by flooding, in the event
of the bursting of a communication pipe which is either
structurally unsound, or imperfectly protected against
frost or mechanical injury.
As to the question of house cisterns; in my judgment,
no house is properly equipped unless it be furnished with
a cistern which contains one day's supply. The cisterns,
of course, must be properly planned, properly constructed
and properly looked after. The overflow pipes should
be the old-fashioned standing waste, with the outlet converted
into a warning pipe. In this way efficient flushing
out of all deposit is readily accomplished by simply lifting
the overflow pipe and letting the water run for a minute
pr two while the sides and bottom of the cistern are