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48
water is necessary to keep the water carriage system of sewage in a
sanitary condition. This is especially necessary during the hot summer
months. At this time of the year, all the factors for rapid decomposition
of organic matter are present, and any deficiency in water
will lead to delay in the removal of offensive organic matter, both
from the premises and house drains, and to the evolution of foul
odours which would injure the health of those exposed to them.
Thirdly, a lack of water will lead to a laxity in personal and
domestic cleanliness, and this is especially the case in the poorer
districts where their importance and value are not estimated so
highly as in other classes and districts; in the case of sick persons
to the spread of certain diseases.
And at this point the opinion of the Inspectors whose report
has just been issued is worth quoting. Commenting on the use of
cisterns for storage, the Inspectors go on to say, "Under the best
arrangements" (and in certain parts of Hackney the worst arrangements
obtained) "there must be times when short periods of interruption
of a constant service will occur, and at such times the want
of water for domestic purposes, for flushing water closets, sealing
water traps, etc., is calculated to lead to conditions injurious to
health, which should not be allowed to exist, and which a proper
use of really efficient cisterns would guard against."
There is no doubt that such "a period of interruption of a
constant service," did occur last year, and that there was a "want
of water for domestic purposes," and that this did "lead to conditions
injurious to health," and as there was a total absence of
"really efficient cisterns," to guard againsts such consequences,
the inference is obvious, apart from statistics, that such consequences
did follow.
Further, it can hardly be expected that the results of a scarcity
such as that experienced in Hackney, which was brought on gradually,
and was of a comparatively short duration, should manifest