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CLOSET ACCOMMODATION.
The exceptions to all closet accommodation in the Borough
being on the water carriage system of the West Middlesex Main
Drainage Scheme were given in detail in the report for 1937.
There is now no dwelling house provided with a pail closet. Only
three pail closets remain in use in the Borough, two at a factory
and one in connection with a caravan.
The number of chemical closets has been reduced to 30, 19
belonging to the Borough Council. One cesspool and one septic
tank have been abolished during the year.
Cesspools cannot be condemned simply because of being
cesspools, but there is always much against them. For example,
their periodic emptying, with the disposal of the contents, has
to be seen to, while any laxity in supervision or in maintenance
of repair results in objectionable overflow or soakage. A
vacuum tank of the gully emptier type is the best method of
emptying a cesspool, while the most appropriate method of disposal
of the contents is into a sewer.
A septic tank is designed to retain the sewage, so that the
solids are broken up, the insoluable matter settling out as sludge
which also must be removed but at infrequent intervals. From
a Public Health point of view there is really little between a
cesspool and a septic tank. The septic tank takes the disintegration
of sewage material a step further chemically, but the
effluent may still be bacteriologically dangerous, for which
reason chlorination of the effluent is sometimes practised.
No doubt the cesspools and septic tanks are relics of the
earlier development of the district when sewers were unavailable.
From a public health point of view the elimination of all
cesspools and septic tanks, as soon as becoming possible with
the development of the Borough sewage system, should take
place.
While chemical closets have a container in which the contents
are intended to be covered by a chemical disinfectant,
they are virtually pail closets with the same social objections as
to their use and the disposal of their contents. Further, such
safety as the use of a disinfectant may give, is often lost by
reason of insufficient supervision. These chemical closets should
always be looked upon only as a temporary expedient for use
in a town like Wembley perhaps for a few weeks.
The Council have resolved "that the earliest possible steps
should be taken to effect the removal of all cesspools, septic
tanks and chemical closets in use in the Borough."
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