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132
Water Board, and the remaining by the South Essex
Waterworks Co. Some of the outlying portions are supplied
by shallow wells, and these keep diminishing in number as
the mains of the Water Companies are extended.
In this way, within the past year or so, numerous wells
have been closed or their use discontinued.
At Eight Houses water from the Metropolitan Water
Board has been laid on, and the South Essex have supplied
Padnall Corner and Aldborough Hatch. Within the last
year or two several deep wells have been sunk within the
district. The Metropolitan Water Board have sunk one
at Redbridge, and the South Essex one at Chadwell into the
chalk, which will give a plentiful and good supply from this
source, if required.
The quality and quantity from both these companies
has been good, and no complaints have been received during
the past year.
I extract the following statement from the Annual
Report of the Metropolitan Water Board, as being of
interest to the consumers in this district:—
"In the third report also of the Director of the
Metropolitan Water Board, the question of storage of raw
river water antecedent to filtration is dealt with from the
general point of view. The outstanding conclusions arc that
storage reduces the number of bacteria of all sorts, if
sufficiently prolonged; devitalises the microbes of water
borne disease; reduces the amount of suspended matter;
reduces the amount of oxygen absorbed from permanganate;
tends, generally speaking, to lengthen the life of the filters,
and renders a breakdown in the filtering arrangements much
less serious than would otherwise be the case.