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7
Ample evidence of the valuable work carried out by the Sanitary Section during
the year will be found in those Sections dealing with Sanitary Administration,
Housing, Supervision of the Food Supplies and Control of Infectious Disease. A
very high standard of work has been maintained throughout.
The outstanding nuisance in the Borough during the year was that caused by
the condition of the River Thames. The whole of the sewage of London is discharged
into the River Thames just at or below Woolwich—at the northern outfall near
Barking Creek and at the southern outfall at Crossness—and the only treatment the
great bulk of London sewage receives is time to settle to allow of the deposit of
crude matters in suspension. The liquid sewage is then discharged direct into the
river, without further treatment except during hot spells when chemicals may be
added as a palliative measure.
The removal of sewage from the Thames depends partly upon the tides and
partly upon the supply of water from the upper reaches. Last summer, during the
period of drought, the amount of such water available was very much below average,
and so little was available for the aeration, dilution and removal of the sewage.
The tides do not by themselves remove the sewage, and so the river at Woolwich,
as the season went on, became a solution of sewage effluent. Offensive smells arose
from it night and day and these were noticed not only in those parts of the town
adjoining the river but in parts further away. The Thames had, in fact, arrived at
a condition very little different from that described in words which were written in
a government report on the sanitary condition of Woolwich in 1851:—"There is
the river in front, tainted by the refuse of the Metropolis and the daily tides cause
the vitiated waters to oscillate, weaving much of the same water, with any refuse
it contains, backwards and forwards in front of the town for several days." The
London County Council in July decided to spend something over half-a-million
pounds in providing additional sewage purification plant on the north side of the
river, but according to the present plan it will be five years before the plant is
complete, and then it will treat by the activated sludge process approximately 20 per
cent. of London sewage. It will thus only be a partial scheme, and unless there is
some alteration in outlook or speeding up, Woolwich will have to endure unpleasant
odours from the River Thames every dry summer, since, as it is well put in the same
report referred to above, "Rivers and natural streams cannot be turned into open
sewers with impunity."
In housing matters much progress has been made. A general survey of the
Borough has made clear what areas require to be dealt with by clearance schemes
and negotiations are now in progress with the London County Council with a view to
settling how much shall be undertaken by that body and how much by the Borough
Council. Three representations were made by me during the year and the building