BODY IN RESERVOIR

Evening Star, Issue 24005, 2 October 1941, Page 3

BODY IN RESERVOIR

WATER UNAFFECTED FROM HEALTH STANDPOINT (P.A.) INVERCARGILL, Oct. 1. The body of a man, aged 50, was discovered late yesterday afternoon in one of the reservoirs of the city waterworks. He had been missing for three weeks. To-day members of the Invercargill City Council visited the waterworks to inspect the reservoir, -which had been drained, and workmen were engaged in giving it a thorough cleaning. A recommendation to the Works Committee to consider the advisability of fencing the main deep reservoirs was discussed informally. An assurance that the city water supply would not be harmed by the presence of the body in tho reservoir for three weeks was given by the professor of pathology at the University of Otago (Dr E. F. d’Ath) in a telephone interview with the ‘Southland Times ’ to-day. He said that harm could only be caused if a person was suffering from an infectious disease, and then only if the bacteria could bo water borne, such as those of typhoid fever. Dead birds were often found ■in the tanks of domestic water services, but their presence did not affect the water from the health point of view.