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78
Report of the Medical Officer of Health.
The cleansing carried out by the London County Council removed
a large amount of the foul deposit in the bed of the river, but this
deposit is again accumulating and in some places is as great as it
was at the date of my last report.
I understand that the Ministry of Health has sanctioned the
scheme for dealing with the effluent from the Wandle Valley Board,
but it will be some time before the works can be commenced.
The nuisance from the smell still exists, and I am of opinion that
the condition is a menace to the health of the neighbourhood."
6th July, 1922
" Having carefully reconsidered the question, I am still of opinion
that mere spraying of the banks of the River Wandle with efther a
larvicide or with paraffin would not be of much service in stopping
or even to any great extent mitigating the extreme prevalence of
mosquitoes (Culex pipiens) in the Wandle area. It would be necessary
to carry out much more extensive operations to free this area even
for a season from the mosquitoes, among them being the cutting and
burning of all grass near the Wandle, the purification of the Wandle
itself and some of the few remaining ditches running into it, the
use of a larvicide in the water vans to destroy thoroughly all larvae in
street gullies, the cleansing of the house gutters in the affected area,
and also the abolition of the sewage farms in the neighbourhood.
The cost of carrying out the more complete scheme would be
very great and would not, in my opinion, justify its adoption.
The works already carried out by the Wandsworth Borough
Council on the banks of the Wandle at the Southfields Park will
improve matters in that area, and if the whole of the Wandle up
to the Corruganza Works were dealt with in the same way, I am of
opinion that a very marked improvement would be noticed.