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Sanitary Circumstances of the Area.
WATER.
Several large factories have private wells for drawing water
from the chalk, but practically the whole of the Borough is
supplied with water by the Metropolitan Water Board. The
supply is constant, and in every case it is conveyed directly to
the house. A few houses have storage tanks in the roof which
need periodical cleansing. The cleaning of these tanks is often
difficult owing to some of them being built into the roof with no
facilities for access.
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,
1025, both these Authorities now have powers to discharge into
the L.C.C. Sewer at Hackney. During the year these two
Authorities have completed their schemes for the discharge of
sewage into the L.C.C. Sewer in the Hacknev District, and the
river will now be free from contamination so far as these bodies
are concerned.
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 water-closets,
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 by the Victoria and Albert
Docks, is drained into a main sewer running 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 buildings, remains unsewered, but is drained into a series
of cesspools. A scheme is now on foot whereby the sewage of this
area shall be dealt with by the installation of suitable
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