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170
WATER SUPPLY.
The Cutting-off Powers of the Companies.
This subject was recently brought under the notice of the
Metropolitan Sanitary Authorities in a communication from the
Clerkenwell Vestry calling attention to
" The question of the power of Water Companies, under Section 32 of
the Metropolis Water Act, 1871, to cut-off water from houses
which are under the constant supply system, if the fittings are in
such a state as to occasion waste of water, the Sanitary Authorities
being then set in motion under Section 33."
The Vestry, referring to the Act passed last Session
" modifying the Companies' power to cut-off water from
premises for non-payment of the Water Rate," submitted " that
in the interests of public health it is highly desirable that a
similar amendment of the law should take place in regard to
cutting-off water in consequence of waste," and suggested
" that, in lieu of the water being cut-off, power should be given
to the Water Companies" (by whom, in fact, it is already
possessed, when constant supply is given), " or the Sanitary
Authorities, to carry out the necessary works, and recover the
costs from the owners." The Vestry invited the co-operation
of the Sanitary Authorities " in endeavouring to obtain such
an amendment of the law."
This subject of "cutting-off" has received consideration
repeatedly in my Monthly and Annual Reports, and was fully
dealt with in my Annual Report for 1882 (p. 117-26), in
which I drew attention to the arbitrary power possessed by the
Companies to cut off the supply "as a coercive measure to
obtain payment of the rate." This power, in regard to houses
let in tenements, and when the owner is liable for payment of
the water rate, has been taken from the Companies by the
Water Companies (Regulation of Powers) Act, 1887, described
as " an Act to limit the powers of the Water Companies to cut
off the Tenant's Water Supply when the Rate is paid by the