WATER POSITION SERIOUS

Taranaki Daily News, 7 June 1934, Page 5

WATER POSITION SERIOUS

EFFECT OF DROUGHT ON LONDON. BOARD DRAWING ON STORAGE. By Telegraph—Press Assn.—Copyright.. London, June 5. Without rain for three weeks, London’s water supply position is grave. The flow of the Thames daily above Teddington weir is 519,000,000 gallons below the normal Junfe average, which is 819,000,000 gallons. The quantity avail-, able from the Thames is 55,000,000 gallons daily below requirements, so that the Metropolitan Water Board is drawing on storages, which total 70 days’ supply. - The chairman of the board says that the drought is the most serious since a record has been kept for ten years. The Metropolitan Water Board employs 5200 men to provide 7,250,000 « Londoners with water, the normal daily < consumption being 280,000,000 gallons. This big supply comes from three main sources: The Thames 60 per cent.,., the River Lea 20 per cent., Wells (Lea Valley and Kent) 20 per cent • The board is not allowed to replenish its reserves from the Thames if the flow over Teddington weir falls below 170,- \- 000,000 gallons a day, but so far, during the heat wave, the river, it .is Zr stated, has “behaved very well, and al- • lowed us to replenish our stocks, so that London is by no means living- on r its water capital.” Thames water is stored in huge reservoirs. The giant of them all z is the ! Queen Mary reservoir at Littleton, near Staines, with a capacity pf 6,750,000,000 gallons. In one year 9,408,000,000 gallons ■„: were taken out of it. Two other reservoirs at Staines have a combined capacity of 3,500,000,000 gallons. Pumping stations in the Thames valley, send the water along pipe lines, after it has been filtered and purified, to various distribution points in London. Thus, Kempton pumping station sends water to Cricklewood, Highgate, _ ,and other points in North London, Hampton and Walton stations to Nunhead, Honor Oak, Brixton and other places. The Metropolitan Water Board was formed less than 30 years ago, and ths gigantic task of forming one system out ; of the eight different companies which ' -■Were then amalgamated still goes on. Easy distribution is the board’s majorproblem, and “interchangeability” the capacity to let East London have Thames . ‘ water when the River Lea supply falls . off, which is now being done—is the ideal aimed at.