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50
It must not be thought that these floodings, consisting, as they so
largely do, of surface water, are therefore comparatively harmless and
inoffensive. No one who has had an intimate acquaintance with the
matter which comes up from the sewers into basement rooms will be
under that delusion; and, indeed, it is common knowledge that the
storm waters issuing from the sewers in the earlier stages of a storm
are almost, if not quite, as offensive as dry-weather sewage.
As the Main Drainage Committee of the L.C.C. point out, even
the water flowing from the streets after heavy rainfall is as polluted
as, and in some cases more so than, the actual flow in the sewers, and
the flood discharges which now take place from the storm overflows
are of an offensive character.
Another aspect of the question has reference to the River Thames.
Every year that the existing state of things is suffered to continue leads
to a considerable increase in the fouling of that river as it passes through
London, by the existing overflow sewage. The Main Drainage Committee
of the L.C.C. four years ago viewed with some apprehension the
danger of the increasing pollution of the river, and they express the view
that occasionally the effect on the foreshore was such as they could
not contemplate with equanimity. I believe at the present time
that the storm outlets into the Thames are brought into operation
whenever the rainfall amounts to some one-sixth of an inch. The
advantages gained by the expenditure of about £150,000 annually
in the treatment and disposal of the sewage in London at the outfall
works, with a view to freeing the Thames from pollution, must undoubtedly
be largely neutralised if the river is not protected from gross
contamination with sewage at points higher up.
It is only recently that the London County Council has displayed
the necessary energy and desire to grapple with this urgent sanitary
requirement of London, and it is to be hoped that every effort will now
be made to finish the work at the earliest possible date.
During the year the Council has appointed delegates to confer
with other Boroughs and to approach the London County Council in