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Section C—Sanitary Circumstances.
Water Supply
The greater part of the district is supplied by the Sutton District
Water Company which obtains its water from wells in the chalk situated at
Sutton, Cheam and Woodmansterne. These supplies can be augmented if
the need arises by the Metropolitan Water Board, the Epsom and Ewell
Corporation Water Works and the East Surrey Water Company. The
company has a statutory duty to soften to 9° of hardness. A small portion
of the northern end of the district comprising about 170 dwellings is supplied
by the Metropolitan Water Board.
All dwellings have a piped supply. The water is not considered to be
plumbo-solvent.
When the vulnerability of chalk wells was demonstrated, particularly
by the gastro-enteritis epidemic of 1936, comprehensive precautions were
instituted to protect the supply including the process of chlorination. The
effectiveness of these arrangements is checked by daily examination of the
raw and finished waters by the company's resident chemist and periodically
by independent Water Analysts acting for the company and by the Public
Health Departments of the local authorities in the supply area on an agreed
rota. Quality and quantity were satisfactory throughout the year. The
following summary shows the results of the company's own examinations
and is supplied by courtesy of the Engineer and Works Manager.
Sample
Total
No. of
Bacteriological
Examinations
Total
No. of
full
Chemical
Analyses
No. and %
of samples
showing ColiAerogenes
in
100 ml. (excluding
B. Coli 1)
No. and %
of sample
showing B. Coli
present in 100 ml.
of sample Type 1.
Total No.
ColiAero
genes
Organisms
in
100 ml.
of
sample
No. % No. %
Sutton Raw 311 53 16 5.30 3 0.95 19
Sutton Finished 312 14 2 0.63 i 2 0.63 4
Woodmansterne Raw 309 50 Nil Nil Nil Nil Nil
Woodmansterne
Finished 309 14 10 3.25 Nil Nil 10
Cheam 312 53 6 1.93 Nil Nil 6
Reservoir 238 Nil Nil Nil Nil Nil Nil
District (excluding
new mains) 263 Nil 20 7.60 2 0.76 22
Total 2,054 184
The sanitary authorities in the supply area carried out 14 chemical and
24 bacteriological examinations during 1955 and all were satisfactory. The
following is a representative analysis:
20