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31
RIVERS AND STREAMS.
The ditches are under the control of the Town Council as
successors to the Dagenham Commissioners, as also are the
river banks for the prevention of floods. The Lea and the
Thames, both tidal rivers, are under the control of the Port of
London Authority as regards the Thames and part of the
River Lea. The rest of the Lea and its backwaters are under
the Lea Conservancy.
There are two main sources of pollution into the river
before it enters West Ham at Temple Mills, viz., from the
sewage effluents of two neighbouring Authorities. These enter
this area at Temple Mills Railway Sidings and discharge into
the Water Works River (a tributary of the Lea).
Under the London County Council (General Powers) Act,
1925, both these Authorities now have powers to discharge into
the L.C.C. Sewer at Hackney. In respect to one of these
Authorities nlans have been prepared, and it is anticinated that
the work will be begun during the coming year (1927).
DRAINAGE AND SEWERAGE.
The water carriage system of sewage removal is almost
universal throughout the whole area. With few exceptions all
houses are provided with properly flushed modern waterclosets,
discharging through appropriate drains into Public
Sewers, which also convey the surface water and most of the
rainfall. A certain portion of the Borough. being isolated bv
the Victoria and Albert Docks, is drained into a main sewer
runnine from west to east through a narrow strip of the
southern portion of the Borough of East Ham. whence it
discharges into the London Countv Council Sewer at North
Woolwich.
The North-Western corner of the Borough—an area of.
roughly, 120 acres containing two terraces of houses and some
isolated buildines remains unsewered, but is drained into a
series of cesspools. A scheme is now in hand whereby the
sewaee of this area will be dealt with bv the installation of
suitable filter beds, unless consent can be obtained to drain
into the new sewer, which is being laid in this region by one
of the authorities referred to above.
The Sewers draining the main portion of the district (fivesixths
of the whole area) converge by means of specially constructed
intercepting Sewers to the Corporation Pumping
Station, situated near the middle of the Western border of the