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190
"2. In dealing with these Bills your Committee have observed to the beat of their
judgment the instruction given to them by the House, and confined the powers conferred upon
these several Companies to those works, and that acquisition of laud 'which could not, in their
judgment, be postponed without detriment to the interests of the public.'
"8. The evidence before your Committee clearly points out that no large new source of
water supply for the constantly increasing wants of these districts could be made available for
at least 13 to 14 years from the present time, and that therefore the population must be
supplied from sources now available for a similar period, and that as the present powers of
supply of some of these companies will soon be exhausted, and the storage is already inadequate,
provision must be made in the public interest for the further supply and storage of water
required in the interval.
"4. The population deriving their daily water supply from the companies whose Bills
have been under consideration amount to no less than 3,8G3,566,
"5. Whilst it has been alleged that the prevention of waste would in some cases place
more water at the disposal of the water companies, on the other hand the large increase of the
population, the substitution of constant for intermittent supply, and especially the decided
evidence that there is a largely increased consumption per head of the population, for domestic,
sanitary, and municipal purposes, far outweigh any probabilities of savings and economies that
any practicable methods could introduce.
"6. In addition, the imperative demand for water compels that some provision should be
made for exceptional drought, floods, frosts, and those casualties to which a water supply is
always liable. The storage, in the case of the three companies interested in the Staines
Reservoirs Bill (except West Middlesex, which obtained considerable powers for increased
storage in 1894, which are about completed), is greatly deficient, and far short of the estimate
of the Royal Commission of 1803, and of the amount deemed to be necessary by the water
examiner and experts, to secure a good, wholesome and constant supply, and for provision in
case of even a small excess in demand.
"7. It has been suggested that more water might be obtained by pumping direct from the
river Thames, and thus avoiding a present outlay in storage reservoirs, but it seems to your
Committee that this expedient would only aggravate the acknowledged evils and dangers of
deficient storage, and might involve taking water direct from the river when it would be most
unsuitable to do so, instead of obtaining it from a storage supply drawn from the river at times
most suitable for pumping.
8. Your Committee have had before them the report and suggestions of the Local
Government Board, and of the Board of Agriculture. They have endeavoured to embody in the
Bills the suggestions made by these authorities.