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48
supply of from 35 to 40 gallons per head. Sir Joseph Bazalgette's
scheme allowed for only ¼" of rainfall in twenty-four hours, and it
did not provide for the enormous increase in the population and of the
number of houses even within the Metropolis, much less for taking in
the drainage from the districts outside the metropolitan boundary of
such parts as Acton, Willesden, Ealing, Tottenham, Wood Green,
Hornsey, West Ham, and East Ham; neither was it contemplated to
take any part of the sewage west of Chelsea. It is, therefore, obvious
that as the sewers have become more and more filled up with dryweather
sewage, less space is left for rain-water, and that, therefore,
the nuisance must increase year by year. The dry-weather flow of
sewage for which the system was designed was 108 million gallons
daily, while it is now about 195 million, or about 80 per cent. more.
The discharging capacity of the outfall sewers for the sewage
north of the Thames as compared with the united discharging capacity
of the high, middle, and low-level sewers which empty into them, is
deficient to the extent of over 20,000 cubic feet of sewage per minute.
Clearly the main sewerage provision ought to be at least of sufficient
capacity to deal with the discharging power of the sewers that come
into it, and it does not require an individual of the light and leading
of a County Councillor to understand that there is no local remedy
which can be effectually employed for dealing with the results of this
state of things, and that the increased provision of both intercepting
and main outfall sewerage is the essential step to take.
The failure of the London County Council to recognise this fact,
and their culpable delay in giving effect to the recommendations of
their advisers, has not only endangered the health and comfort of their
constituents, but it has occasioned (and still occasions) considerable
alarm and difficulties to those whose duty it is to guard the public
health of their sanitary areas.
The vital importance of guarding the soil and sub-soil from fæcal
pollution is one of the greatest lessons that our sanitary experience
has taught us, and the desire to benefit from that knowledge is responsible
for the expenditure of millions of money in the direction of