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62
WATER SUPPLY.
Owing to the prevalence of Typhoid in 1903, systematic monthly
analyses were made during the year 1904, of the water supplied to
your district by the East London Water Company, now the Metropolitan
Water Board.
The analyses showed an improvement in the quality over the
previous year, and the water supply was good and constant.
When the revision of the Building Bye-Laws were under consideration
in July, it would have been well had Mr. West or myself been
consulted and some provision made to insist upon cisterns being
placed in a position accessible to the householder and Sanitary
Inspector. At present these cisterns are placed in the most inaccessible
positions in the houses, uncovered and liable to all kinds of pollution.
It is no uncommon thing, when illness in the house draws particular
attention to them, to find dead leaves, birds, insects, besides a large
quantity of liquid filth at the bottom, and in the investigation into the
causes of Summer Diarrhœa, only 50 per cent. of the houses took their
drinking water direct from the main, the rest from the cistern. If a
cistern be necessary, the builder might be compelled to place it in a
well-lighted and well-ventilated position, unliable to contamination, and
where periodical cleaning might be possible to the householder.
The cisterns should only be used for supplying water to kitchen
boilers, for washing clothes, and for the flushing of water-closets, and
perhaps to prevent the household supply being entirely cut off when
mains are under repair.
The drinking water should at all times be free from every possible
contamination.
The Public Baths increase in popularity and have been much used.
The teaching of swimming to school children of both sexes is a
pleasant and healthful feature in their education.
The provision of Open Air Swimming Baths must soon come.
COWSHEDS, MILKSHOPS, AND DAIRIES.
The Model Bye-Laws of the Local Government Board governing these,
are in operation and enforced.
There are, at present, 15 licensed Cowsheds and 102 Milk-sellers in
this district, as compared with 14 and 98 in 1903.