WATER AND HEALTH.

Auckland Star, Volume LIII, Issue 91, 18 April 1922, Page 5

WATER AND HEALTH.

URGENT NEED OF PURITY. CITY SDPPLT SATISFACTORY. GROWING MENACE TO THE PUBLIC. OF LOCAL UNDERGROUND SUPPLIES.

Discussing the occurrence of typhoid fever in' the Mount Albert district the Mayor, Mr. J. H. Gunson, stated this morning that the Mount Albert authorities communicated with the city waterworks engineer, Mr. Carlaw, on Thursday evening last, and in accordance with the standing instructions in furtherance of the City Council's policy for some time past, a supply of water from the city mains was at once rendered available for the district. 'The policy of the council has been, and still is, to supply water to all the suburban local authorities who may desire to take a suppy from the city, and even during times of shortage they have been supplied, subject, of course, to the same restrictions as.it was' necessary to impose on city consumers.

The quality of the city water, since the suspicion was raised respecting it in December, 1920, has by successive monthly analyses by Dr. Gilmour, the hospital bacteriologist, been ascertaind to be pure and satisfactory from a health point of view. The last analysis was an exceedingly satisfactory one, and on this head it is interesting to note that following on the assistance the council had from Dr. Hughes, chief medical officer for the district, it had the advice and assistance of. Dr. McKibbin during his recent acting period in Auckland. Dr. McKibbin, ac had been the practice of Dr. Hughes, visited tbe whole of the watershed and made a thorough examination of the sources of the city supply. And he expressed himself as most favourably impressed with the catchment areas, both at Waitakere and at Nihotupu, and expressed the view that the conditions there were such that it wag impossible for contamination to take place under the existing conditions. These conditions of virgin bush are. being protected rigidly by the council. The whole of the areas are now being fenced, and the public are rigidly excluded from them. "No trespassers are allowed under any circumstances. Thus are removed any possible danger of contamination." VEGETABLE DISCOLORATION. "As to the sufficiency of supply, with the continuous rains throughout the summer and autumn there is no fear of any shortage this year, and progress at the Nihotupu impounding dam works assures us* of a considerable increase in storage early next summer. At the end of the summer, that is to say, in February or March next, the works should be completed and the large reservoir availab]e_for storage. "The discolouration from time to time of the city water by vegetable matter. and about which tliere has been recent complaint, is entirely due to the clearing of the valley and the occasional floods | washing down the stream the recently [cleared vegetation. It is physically impossible to avoid this condition while these works are going on, but as far as possible Mr. Carlaw will use exclusively the Waitakere water, where no such conditions now exist, as the'works there were completed many years ago. This will reduce to a minimum this admittedly, undesirable condition which from time to time has been experienced, and which will in another twelve months be entirely a thing of the past. At the same time this discolouration is nothing 'ike so bad or regular as is often suggested. A good deal of the tw"ouble with regard to the condition of the water arises in areas where the service mains terminate in what are called 'dead ends.' Here a condition of stagnancy ad rust sets up. Throughout the city area the waterworks engineer regularly and effectively attends to this condition, and if tnese "dead ends' in othfer d-stricts w_ro similarly attended to there would not be as many complaints as tnere are about the condition of the city water." DANGER OF LOCAL SOAKAGE STJPFO-IBS. Touching on the kindred necessity of efficient drainage Mr. Gunson remarked: "Speaking as chairman of the Auckland Drainage Board, the Mt. Albert Borough and all the contributing districts to tbe Drainage Board are responsible for the reticulation of their own areas. The main sewers alone are provided by the board. But there is no doubt that these districts,' and the Drainage Board has ample evidence of this, are doing all possible to provide speedily adequate drains%e systems for their districts. Apart, however, from this altogether, it must 'be perfectly clear that with the spread of suburban population over these once sparsely peopled districts, water supplies drawn from underground sources in these areas will shortly be considered too risky from a public health standpoint, to be longer tolerated, if indeed, the time has not already arrived for that attitude. The development works of the Auckland City Council in the matter of water supply will meet all immediate demands, but there are pressing proWems not at present concerning the city administration, but for other local authorities of the district, particularly the northern parts of the metropolitan area, which may at no distant date necessitate consideration of the position on much bigger lines than anything possible in the past. The point at present is from the city standpoint, and the interests of the city ratepayers, that an adequate supply is secured for many years to come, and it may be further developed as necessity arises."