London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
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Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
Carshalton 1959
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Carshalton]
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Section C—Sanitary Circumstances.
Water Supply
Except for a small part of the area on the northern boundary comprising
rather less than 200 premises supplied by the Metropolitan Water Board,
the district is within the supply area of the Sutton District Water Company.
Water is derived from wells in the chalk situated at Sutton, Cheam and
Woodmansterne. If the need arises the supply can be augmented by the
Epsom and Ewell Corporation's water undertaking, or by the East Surrey
Water Company and by the Metropolitan Water Board. The Company is
under a statutory obligation to soften their own supply to 9° of hardness.
All dwellings have a piped supply. The water is not considered to be
plumbo-solvent.
The raw water is subjected to treatment devised on modern lines and
extensive arrangements exist for safeguarding the purity of the supply.
These include daily testing of the various waters both raw and finished by
the Company's resident chemist. Additional samples are taken by a firm of
independent water chemists on behalf of the Company and by the Public
Health Departments of the Local Authorities in the supply area monthly
on an agreed rota.
Quantity and quality were adequate during the year. The following details indicate the results of the routine testing carried out by the Company and are supplied by courtesty of the resident chemist.
| Sample | Total No. of Bacteriological Examinations | Total No. of full Chemical Analyses | No. and % of samples showing Coli-Aerogenes in 100 ml. (excluding B. Coli 1) | No. and % of samples showing B. Coli present in 100 ml. of sample (Type 1) | Total No. Coli-Aero-genes Organisms in 100 ml. of sample | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | % | No. | % | ||||
| Sutton Raw | 308 | 53 | 4 | 1.1 | 9 | 2.5 | 13 |
| Sutton Finished | 312 | 12 | 2 | 0.5 | Nil | Nil | 2 |
| Woodmansterne Raw Woodmansterne | 307 | 53 | Nil | Nil | Nil | Nil | Nil |
| Finished | 312 | 12 | 1 | 0.3 | Nil | Nil | 1 |
| Cheam Raw | 312 | 53 | 9 | 3.0 | 4 | 1.3 | 13 |
| Reservoir | 258 | Nil | 3 | 1.2 | 1 | 0.4 | 4 |
| District | 319 | Nil | 15 | 4.8 | Nil | Nil | 15 |
| Total | 2,128 | 183 | 34 | 14 | 48 | ||
The Public Health Departments in the supply area submitted 13 samples
for chemical and 26 for bacteriological examination during the year. All
were satisfactory and also showed hardness less than the 9" to which the
Company is statutorily required to soften, except for one which, as
evidenced by its general characteristics, was probably a sample of water
supplied by arrangement with the Company by the Metropolitan Water
Board. The following is the report on a sample taken in the district which is
representative of this Company's supply.
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