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59
Bromley An epidemic of Sonne's Bacillus Dysentery
broke out in a residential hotel. Water was taken for
analysis from the main tap and from the cisterns. The
main tap supply showed impurity and the cistern greater
impurity. In the investigation of the main supply tap
water it was found that a softener had been inserted
between the mains water supply and the main supply tap,
thus contaminating an already pure water supply.
Samples of well water were taken on two occasions and
were submitted for bacteriological examination and
chemical analysis. The bacterial counts were high, which
were ascribed to abnormal rainfall, and the chemical
analyses indicated the water to be only of fair organic
quality. The users were advised to boil the water before
thinking, there being no main water supply available
within reasonable distance.
Drainage and Sewerage.
The main drainage of the Borough links up with the
undertaking of the West Kent Main Sewerage Board,
whose purification works are at Dartford.
No important extensions or re-constructions of surface
water drainage system were carried out in 1937, other than
the culverting of certain water courses.
Cesspool Drainage.
Two houses were erected with cesspool drainage
during 1937.
It is accepted that cesspools in an urban area are, from
their very nature, objectionable and liable to give rise to
nuisance unless periodically cleansed. The existence of
cesspools over chalk formations are an ever present source
danger to main water supply wells, especially if the
construction of a cesspool is faulty. This Local Authority
is alive to this danger, and, since the extension of the
boundaries to include Hayes and Keston, no effort has been
spared to utilise the somewhat limited powers possessed to
secure the abolition of cesspools in the area. Considerable
success has attended our efforts in this direction, and at the
end of 1937 I was able to report that no less than 251 out