The Press THURSDAY, JANUARY 23, 1947. Christchurch Drainage

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25090, 23 January 1947, Page 6

The Press THURSDAY, JANUARY 23, 1947. Christchurch Drainage

The Christchurch Drainage Board • is about to begin the first stage of a programme of improvements to the city’s sewerage system which is long overdue. No citizen who knows the district can have felt anything but dissatisfaction with the increasing pollution of the lower Heathcote river by the trade wastes of noxious industries; but it is probable that few realised the extent and seriousness of the city’s drainage problem until it was disclosed last winter that in wet weather some sewers become so overloaded that they discharge crude sewage into the Avon river. These are big problems. Successive Drainage Boards tacitly admitted that the trade waste problem was too big for them and did their best to ignore it. The overloading of the sewers could not be ignored, but at the time when this problem was becoming acute little could be done, because of war conditions, to meet it. The city has grown rapidly in recent years, and it has outstripped the development of both its sewerage and its stormwater drainage • systems. The lag in sewerage de- ; velopment is a potential threat to j health. This was recognised by the I Minister of Health when he. ar- | ranged for a Board of Health re- , quisition to enable the Drainage Board to raise a loan of £60,000 without a poll of ratepayers. The , suggestion was made then that a j loan poll for this purpose might be | defeated by the voting power of those who could see no direct benefit to themselves in the work. It is difficult to believe that any citizen could be so selfish or so short-sighted; but that is not an ■ argument in favour of a poll to secure public approval of a work i that competent authorities have declared not merely necessary but imperative. Although a poll on this loan would be a waste of time and of public money, the Drainage Board still faces the possibility of having to go to® the electors for approval of the major part of its sewerage extension plans. The Board of Health has advised it that the issue of a requisition for the urgent work covered by the £ 60,000 loan “ in no way indicates that the “.Board of Health approves of the “other major works envisaged by “ the Christchurch Drainage Board.” The full programme of works planned by the Drainage Board cannot be carried out in a short time. The Board of Health requisition covers only that part regarded as most urgent from the health point of view. Other parts of the work can be little less urgent and will, in a few years or even months, demand immediate attention. It is to be hoped that the Government will provide the legislation necessary for the board to raise the full amount needed, without the formality—or the risk—of a loan poll. The overwhelming majority of citizens will demand only that work so necessary for their well-being should be put in hand with the minimum delay.