DANGEROUS WATER.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18762, 16 July 1924, Page 11

DANGEROUS WATER.

THE SUBURBAN SUPPLIES.

HEALTH OFFICER'S WARNING.

SERIOUS RISK OF POLLUTION.

As the proposal to establish a water board was advanced by the medical officer of health, Dr. T. J. Hughes, he was asked last evening whether the statement by the City Council modified his view of the position. Dr. Hughes said the readiness of the City Council to supply water for the whole metropolitan area apparently offered a complete solution of the problem. Overtures had previously been made to the City Council from various districts, but it had always been understood that there were definite limits on the capacity of the city system. It seemed now that the various local authorities had only to discuss with tho city the terms on which water would be supplied to their districts.

Dr. Hughes was asked whether he would advise the various districts concerned to obtain city water at once or to wait until the growth of population compelled them to obtain larger supplies than those on which they are now dependent —whether it is the quantity or the quality of the water that should determine their policy. Dr. Hughes was emphatic in his opinion that the several local supplies should be abandoned as unreliable from the point of view of public health.

"I have on various occasions expressed my view to the local authorities, isuch as those of One Tree Hill, Onehunga, and Otahuhu, and the residents of those districts should know the position," he said. "It is claimed by these districts that their supplies are crystal clear, and cheaper than city water would be. The appearance of the water is deceptive, because it is drawn from sources that are very liable to serious pollution, especially in wet seasons. A large portion of these districts is not sewered, and the sewage is drained into the soil, and must be recognised as likely to contaminate the springs. We know that from time to time water, from the Manukan Harbour is drawn into the springs, and that water is contaminated by the waste from the various offensive trades on the foreshore. There are, therefore, enormous risks #of the domestic water supply becoming heavily polluted, and should there be any failure of the chlorinating process the people using those supplies would be threatened by a grave epidemic." Asked whether the chlorinating plants now in nse were a reliable safeguard, Dr. Hughes said:—"They are not. Their efficacy is entirely dependent on the human factor, and that element of weakness is not appreciated by the local authorities concerned. In fact, they do not realise thoir responsibilities in this matter of distributing water that is constantly liable to contamination." Dr. Hughes added that reference was frequently made to the success of sterilisation practice in America, but the supplies of the great cities so freely quoted were not treated in the careless fashion usual in New Zealand. The chlorination process was supervised by chemists and bacteriologists, the treated water was constantly tested, and the most elaborate precautions taken to prevent any error in the process. Local methods of chlorination could not be compared with the standard American practice.