View report page

29
The Council do not favour cesspool drainage, and
every effort has and is being made to connect up to the
main drainage whenever new sewers are laid within a
reasonable distance.
Ten earth closets are in the eastern area, and it will
also be possible to dispense with these when the sewers
in the Dagenham Road scheme are constructed. The
remaining 37 closets are in the northern area of the
district and will be dealt with in the same manner as
the cesspools when the proposals for sewering reach
maturity.
The work of emptying cesspools is carried out with
a freighter cesspool emptying machine, which is also
equipped with a special apparatus for emptying earth
elosets. The capacity of the vehicle is 750 gallons, and
the contents are discharged into a manhole constructed
for the purpose and connected to the Council's sewers at
the Salvage Plant. As a general rule, cesspools are
cleansed once per month, but in the northern area of
the district, collections are made at more frequent
intervals if necessary. The earth closet cleansing is
carried out once weekly and usually takes about five
hours on one day only.
The sewage purification works are situated at
Rainham, Essex, and discharge into Rainham Creek,
opposite Erith on the River Thames.
The original works were constructed in 1924 for
the Romford Rural District Council (the precursors of
the Dagenham Urban District Council), and were
designed only for the partial treatment of a maximum
flow of 1 m.g.d.
Simultaneously with the demand for increased flow
capacity of the works, the Port of London Authority
demanded increased purity of the effluent and also