THE CITY WATER SUPPLY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVIII, Issue 17691, 28 January 1921, Page 4

THE CITY WATER SUPPLY.

The citizens of Auckland have been permitted very slowly to learn the causes of the pollution of thenwater supply. The information will not be palatable to the public, nbr is it creditable to the municipal officers who were responsible for safeguarding this vital service. Had the supply been contaminated through natural causes, the excuse might have been made that the contingency could neither have been foreseen nor prevented. When, as now appears to be admitted, the principal source of pollution is a workmen's camp within the watershed, citizens are fully entitled to ask why workmen were ever permitted to camp in the watershed area. There is surely no municipal officer in a responsible position who does not realise that water containing animal pollution of any kind, more especially human pollution, is highly dangerous to public health. To permit a considerable number of men to live in the watershed was, to say the least, an exceedingly risky policy. The remedial steps which the council is now taking, on. the initiative of Dr. Hughes, appear to be satisfactory, but the mere prohibition against camping in the watershed will not necessarily remove all existing sources of infection. Unless the council can satisfy itself that there is no further possibility of pollution, it is bound to establish as early as possible a system of purification, no matter what the cost may be. It is intolerable that the safety of a publio supply of water should depend upon domestic nitration or boiling. Men will be employed on the large dam for a long time to come, and the council must be prepared to give an absolute that the precautions now being adopted guarantee the purity and wholesomeness of the water. Otherwise it must face the question of nitration and sterilisation.