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83
to remain so long unattended to; considering that the water
carriage system, for its efficient working must have a sufficient
quantity of water to prevent poisonous deposits, and must have
sufficient fall in each section of the sewers to allow of an adequately
rapid fall to draw the sewage away from the smaller sewers and
house drains—in so doing the air travelling with the water would
tend to keep the sewers emptied of sewer gases—in fact if the water
carriage had been adequate, traps should have been not much
needed, and gulley openings should have been openings for air to
flow into the sewers, without much sewer gas escaping upwards
into the streets and houses, but for those operations there must be
a continous flow of water not only down the main sewers but along
the smaller sewers also, and for that working a sufficient supply of
water is indispensable. The Metropolitan Board had the
Thames at hand for their service and requisite funds to draw upon,
so that when the water carriage was adopted, the indispensable
supply of water should have been arranged for in every Parish.
The Committee appointed by your Vestry to consider the
subject found the cost of obtaining an efficient supply of water so
great that the Committee did not feel justified in recommending
your Vestry to make such an annual expenditure. I venture to
add that the water might be used not only for the sewers, but for
cleansing the streets also, which is very much needed.
In the interests of health I cannot but each year see that it is
increasingly needed, in an exceedingly populous industrial centre
like Shoreditch to promote, especially in the night during the time
of rest and sleep, as much freshness in the atmosphere of the streets
and dwellings as can possibly be obtained. In so doing the workmans
nature would be supplied with more energy to render hie
industry more successful.
To assist that end, the streets should be well swept as soon as
practicable in the evening or night, and washed with water, and
whatever additional cost this might be the outlay would be compensated
for by the increased aid to health, and the additional comfort
afforded by the sweeter condition of the air around.