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25
SANITARY CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE AREA
WATER
Details of the water supply for the district and of the steps taken to
ensure that the water supplied is pure were set out in the Annual Report
for the year 1938.
The Colne Valley Water Company is at present "carrying out a
major programme of new capital works in order to be in a position to
meet the increasing demands for water throughout the 81 square miles
supplied by the Company. The new works include a very large treatment
and softening plant. It has since the inception of the Company been
the policy to soften the water supplied and that policy remains unchanged.
Until the new works are completed, which will be in some two to three
years, it is impossible to express an opinion as to the amount of softening
which will be carried out."
The results of the analyses of samples taken throughout the year
were all satisfactory.
The water supplied in this district is classed as hard. A typical
analysis, for instance that of the 2nd October, 1953, was that the total
hardness was 236, made up of temporary or carbonate hardness of 183
and permanent or non-carbonate hardness of 53. The accepted classification
of water according to hardness is that those under 50 degrees
hardness are soft, those of 50 to 100 p.p.m. moderately soft, of 100 to
150 slightly hard, 150 to 200 moderately hard, 200 to 300 hard and over
300 very hard. According to the Ministry of Health report on water
softening (reprinted 1950) the percentage of population of the country
supplied by these different types of water are 20.5, 14, 12, 8.5, 40 and 5.
The local population is therefore being supplied with water which is
harder than that supplied to most of the population of the country.
Although the relationship of hardness of water to the health of
consumers has been the subject of debate it is probably now generally
agreed that there is little direct relationship; that it cannot be maintained
that soft waters are responsible for the poor teeth or the defects in the
bones which led to the deformities shown by rickety children ; nor on
the other hand is the consumption of hard water related to any incidence
of stone in the kidney, gout or arterio-sclerosis. Soft waters may be
indirectly harmful because they are more likely to be plumbo-solvent and
unless care is taken, their consumption could lead to lead poisoning;
so also possibly the process of reducing hardness by adding soda might
lead to a loss of vitamins in the food-stuffs on cooking. Again the fact
that washing, whether of the person or of the clothing, in soft waters is so
much more easy and more pleasurable than when hard waters are used
might result in those living in areas supplied by hard waters being more
susceptible to skin lesions and infections than those in districts where
the water is soft; but there is probably no direct relationship between
the hardness of water supplied to any district on the health of the consumers
of that water.