London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
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Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
City of Westminster 1903
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Westminster, City of]
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85
Water Supply.
Taking the average amount of organic impurity in a given volume
of the Kent Company's Water during the 9 years ending December,
1876, as unity, the proportional amount contained in an equal volume
of water supplied by each of the Metropolitan Water Companies
during each month of 1902 is shown in the following table, extracted
from the monthly reports of the Analyst (Prof. Thorpe) of the Local
Government Board:—
| Rent. | New River. | Lambeth. | Southwark. | Grand Junction. | West Middlesex. | East London. | Chelsea. | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January 12th | 1.1 | 2.1 | 8.5 | 3.6 | 7.3 | 4.9 | 2.2 | 3.9 |
| February 9th | 0.9 | 2.4 | 4.9 | 4.4 | 4.9 | 5.5 | 4.5 | 4.9 |
| March 17th | 0.9 | 3.7 | 7.3 | 4.7 | 6.8 | 5.1 | 9.9 | 4.9 |
| April 20th | 0.8 | 1.7 | 3.0 | 2.4 | 4.0 | 4.6 | 3.4 | 4.1 |
| May 18th | 0.8 | 2.7 | 7.3 | 4.5 | 6.9 | 4.6 | 3.9 | 6.1 |
| June 9th | 0.9 | 1.1 | 4.4 | 4.1 | 4.6 | 4.1 | 5.2 | 3.4 |
| July 20th | 0.7 | 1.3 | 3.2 | 2.7 | 3.4 | 4.9 | 4.2 | 4.4 |
| August 19th | 0.8 | 1.9 | 4.9 | 4.0 | 3.6 | 3.6 | 4.2 | 3.7 |
| September 9th | 0.8 | 2.3 | 4.6 | 5.7 | 4.8 | 4.1 | 4.8 | 4.2 |
| October 9th | 1.0 | 6.2 | 8.8 | 8.8 | 9.0 | 3.7 | 8.5 | 4.0 |
| November 16th | 1.1 | 3.8 | 5.7 | 5.0 | 5.9 | 8.1 | 4.6 | 8.4 |
| December 8th | 0.8 | 4.2 | 6.2 | 6.6 | 6.5 | 5.5 | 4.1 | 4.6 |
The water supply of London has been extremely bad during the
whole year. During March the Thames-derived water supplied by
several of the Companies was very inferior in quality, due to the
flooded condition of the Thames and inefficient filtration, but in April
the organic matter in the filtered supplies steadily decreased in amount,,
and at the end of April, the samples contained less organic impurity
and greater freedom from colour than they had done at any time since
the beginning of the year. But this improvement did not continue, as
the Thames was again in flood during the early part of May, and those
Companies which possess comparatively little storage sent out very
imperfectly filtered water of very unsatisfactory quality.
This condition of things persisted more or less throughout the whole
year, and in autumn the amount of organic matter exceeded all previous
experience, and even the New River Company's water in October contained
higher maximum and mean proportions of organic impurity than
Prof. Thorpe had previously found, and although the highest amounts
present were much less than those contained in certain of the Thames
waters, it has been evident that this Company, with its relatively small
storage, could not, on a few occasions, avoid the distribution of water of
somewhat inferior quality. Complaints were made by the City Council
to the Metropolitan Water Board and the Companies, but without any
satisfactory result. The Metropolitan Water Board said that as the
Water Undertakings had not yet passed into their hands, they are not