View report page

19
In February, 1923, the Council protested against yet another
local authority—St. Albans Rural District—being permitted to
discharge sewage effluents into the river, and received a reply from
the Ministry of Health stating "the proposed work will
result in less, not more, pollution of the River. The Ministry,
however, considers that Leyton and Walthamstow sewage would
be better discharged into a London County Council sewer than into
the Lea."
An inspection was made by a chemical specialist and a medical
officer of the Ministry of Health on the 5th July, 1923, during the
course of which the river in the Hackney district was found to be
covered with sewage over a large area of its surface and, in fact,
in a most disgraceful state.
In my Annual Report for 1924 I pointed out that sewage
effluents from Enfield, Edmonton, Finchley, Friern Barnet,
Hornsey, East Barnet and Cheshunt, as well as Leyton and Walthamstow
and St. Albans Rural District, were assisting in the
pollution of the River Lea. It was difficult to do justice to the
condition of the Lea at that time, but the following was an attempt
to do so in a long editorial which appeared in the Hackney Gazette,
and began:—
"Hackney's Putrid River. The River Lea, described by
satirists as Hackney's scent bottle, is again exuding foul
smells. It rarely does anything else at this time of year, when
the blazing orb plays upon its putrid surface and increases
the pungency of its odour. The only cause for wonder is that
Hackney's indignation has been bottled up so long!"
Happily, a marked improvement in the condition of the river
was eventually effected, and for the last 20 years the complaints
which figured so largely in Annual Reports in the past have not
been necessary. In addition to the nuisance arising from pollution
of the river, floodings occurred with some regularity, particularly
in the Middlesex Wharf area which was later the subject of a
Clearance Order. The flooding was particularly serious in 1928,
but from that year until 1947 there was little cause for complaint.
The serious flooding which occurred in 1947, and was referred
to in my Annual Report for that year, was due to weather conditions
so abnormal that the Metropolitan Water Board filter beds
adjoining the Lea were also flooded. Prompt action by the Public
Health Department, with the co-operation of the Police, Fire
Brigade, and W.V.S., did much to alleviate the distress caused to
the people living in the affected houses, and when the water had
receded the filth deposited by the flooding was cleared away by the
Public Health Department workmen and floor boards were taken
up and disinfection carried out beneath the flooring.