be more marked than it is were it not for the increasing and more effective efforts which are being made by Water Undertakers to prevent the waste of water. This is particularly the case in those areas where the demand is showing a tendency to overtake the available supply, and where, therefore, the undertakers see the advisability of restricting the consumption to actual needs so as to avoid the difficulty and expense of obtaining additional supplies. The rise in consumption is due not only to the increasing population, but also to changing habits and the demand for modern conveniences and improved sanitation. The conversion of privies and pail closets to water closets and the provision of hot-water supplies in private dwelling houses has led to the use of much more water. Another cause of the increased consumption has been the restrictions on the use of preservatives in food which has led to the extended use of refrigerators. Certain types of refrigerators depend for their working on a supply of running water and this involves a large addition to the quantity required for ordinary domestic purposes. It appears probable that in a medium-sized house the average daily quantity of water used during the year would be at least a hundred gallons, which is equivalent to the ordinary domestic consumption in a household of four persons. In some places the consumption of water might be much larger, depending upon the nature of the apparatus used. This is a new development and has led to the inclusion in a number of Bills of the present Session, of provisions authorising undertakers to make a special charge in respect of water for refrigerators. Statistics. The weakness in dealing with the various problems of water supply arising from the dearth of trustworthy statistics with regard to existing water undertakings, and the steps which are being taken to remedy this defect, were referred to in the Report for the year 1925-26 and in last year's Report the publication of the British Waterworks Year Book and Directory, which contains statistical details relating to a number of water undertakings, was mentioned. The number of undertakings in respect of which information is given in the Year Book form only a small proportion of the total number of water undertakings, and more comprehensive information is needed. It is hoped that water undertakers, whether Local Authorities or Companies, will realise the importance of the collection and publication of accurate and extensive data, and that, through their co-operation in furnishing the necessary information, future editions of the Year Book will be found to contain statistical details relating to a much larger number of undertakings. The importance of the matter is such that should voluntary effort not result in the production of sufficiently comprehensive results it may become necessary to consider the question of compulsory returns. Metropolitan Water Board. During the year 1927 the average natural flows of the Thames. and the Lee were higher than they had been for a considerable number of years. The average daily quantity of water taken in 1927 by the Metropolitan Water Board was (a) from the Thames, 158.1 million gallons, being 4.8 per cent. less than in 1926; (b) from the Lee, 65.9 million gallons, being 4.9 per cent. more than in 1926; and (c) from springs, wells and other sources, 45.5 million gallons, being the same as in 1926. The average daily quantity of water distributed by the Board directly to consumers showed a small increase over the preceding year, namely, to 262,091,800 gallons, being 114 per cent. more than in 1926. The total number of separate premises supplied at the end of 1927 was 1,215,842, being an increase of 20,204 during the year. The daily consumption of water during the year averaged 36-35 gallons per head. An average daily quantity of 1,967,800 gallons, mainly drawn from the Thames, was supplied in bulk to adjacent undertakings. The pumping station at Kempton Park required in connection with the supply from the new Queen Mary Reservoir at Littleton, which has a capacity of 6,750 million gallons, has been completed so far as the building itself is concerned. One of the two pumping plants has been erected and the other is in course of erection. The mechanical filtration works at Walton-on-Thames, which were opened by the Minister last year, have been in use during the year under review with satisfactory results. SEWERAGE AND SEWAGE DISPOSAL. During the year loans amounting to nearly £5,000,000 were sanctioned in respect of schemes of sewerage, including surface water drainage and sewage disposal. Co-operation of neighbouring authorities in sewage disposal.— Increasing effect has been given in recent years to the policy of the Department to secure that the disposal of the sewage of neighbouring areas should be determined by the physical characteristics of the areas, rather than by their administrative boundaries, and that, where this course is economic and practicable, the sewage. should be dealt with at a common outfall and not at a separate outfall for each area. The chief advantages of this policy are: (1) Greater efficiency in the system of sewage treatment, and in the management of works; (2) Economy in working costs and in administrative expenses; (3) Reduction of the possibility of nuisance or of pollution of rivers; (4) Reduction of the automatic restriction on building development which sewage disposal works tend to impose. During the year this policy has been successfully pursued in a number of cases. An important instance is the Seaton Burn Valley Joint Sewerage Board, which, constituted by the Ministry of Health Provisional Orders Confirmation (No. 12) Act, 1927, now administers the disposal, by trunk sewers discharging to the sea, of the sewage from the whole or parts of five Urban Districts in Northumberland. This arrangement has made possible the abandonment, either at once or in the near future, of no fewer than seven existing disposal works, all more or less inadequate or inefficient. Another instance is that of the Borough of Ilford and the Urban District of Barking Town, whose growing populations, including the rapidly developing Becontree Housing Estate of the London County Council, have necessitated increased facilities for sewage treatment. It was decided by the two Authorities to abandon their existing separate disposal works; but a proposal to provide new joint works on Barking Marshes was, after various conferences between the Authorities, officers of this Department and the London County Council, abandoned in favour of an arrangement by which the sewage of the Borough and the Urban District will be taken to the existing disposal works of the County Council at Barking Creek. The County Council are promoting a Bill in Parliament to enable effect to be given to this arrangement. A third instance is supplied by the agreement of the Urban District Councils of Calverley, Farsley and Gildersome with their neighbour the Corporation of Leeds for the discharge of sewage from their areas into the sewers of the Corporation, thereby enabling three existing disposal works to be abandoned. Arising out of a proposal for the sewerage and sewage disposal of the Valley portion of the Caterham Urban District, the Department suggested that the District Council, in combination with other Local Authorities in East Surrey, might deal with the sewage from their Districts by discharging it by gravitation to the Croydon sewage disposal works. Steps were taken to set up a Committee of representatives of Caterham Urban District Council, Carshalton Urban District Council, Coulsdon and Purley Urban District Council, Epsom Rural District Council and Reigate Rural District Council to go into the matter. This Committee is now in negotiation with the Croydon Town Council in regard to the communication of sewers and joint arrangements for the disposal of the sewage. Besides the centralization of the sewage from this wide area, the reduction of the number or extent of sewage disposal works is all to the good, having regard to the important water supplies derived from the chalk in this neighbourhood. Failure to effect co-operation.-Against the success achieved in the above and other cases in securing co-operation must be set instances in which neighbouring Local Authorities have failed to provide for joint disposal arrangements. The Minister has no effective power to compel joint schemes, and it has occurred that the sanitary and economic advantages of combined action have been outweighed by local antipathies, or by the fear of the smaller Authority that co-operation with their larger neighbour might be a step towards the loss of their independence. Illustrations of this lack of co-operation may be found in the following cases : (a) A Parish in a Rural District was in need of sewerage, and the District Council had a scheme prepared for the purpose. The Council of the adjoining Urban District were proposing to remodel their sewage disposal works, and the Department advised the Rural Council to co-operate with the Urban Council for the communication of the proposed Parish sewers with those of the Urban District and the treatment of the sewage at the Urbans Council's works, the latter to be of increased capacity. The Rural Council, however, refused to enter into such an arrangement. (b) The sewage disposal works serving an Urban District were in need of reorganization. The District Council desired. to abandon the works, and to enter into an arrangement with a neighbouring Urban District Council whereby the sewage would be dealt with at the disposal works of the latter. That Council refused to agree to the proposal, and, although the Department, after Local Inquiry, were satisfied that such an arrangement was desirable and urged its further consideration upon the Council, the latter adhered to their decision. (c) The sewage disposal arrangements of an Urban District required considerable improvement and the Department were of the opinion that, instead of effecting alterations and additions to the existing works, the preferable course would be that the disposal works of the adjoining Urban District should be extended so that one disposal works should serve both Districts. Efforts to bring about such a combination, have, however, proved abortive. FLOODING. Heavy rainfall and severe storms during the year resulted in serious inundations both of land and sea water, resulting in loss of life and heavy damage to property. Valley of River Irk.-On the afternoon and evening of the 11th July a thunderstorm with rainfall estimated at 4 inches in about four hours occurred on the high ground near Shaw in the Urban District of Crompton forming the watersheds of the Rivers Irk and Beal. The River Irk, in a fierce torrent swollen by the flood water of tributaries, passed through Royton, Chadderton and Middleton, in places changing its course. Above Middleton the bank carrying the Rochdale Canal across the Irk Valley gave way and the contents of a mile of the canal were discharged into the Valley. At Middleton three lives were lost and the damage to mills, business premises and private houses is estimated by the Town Council to have amounted to £100,000. In the Urban District of Royton, where the main damage was to mills from flooding of the Roy, a tributary of the Irk, and in the Urban District of Chadderton the damage is estimated by the District Councils to have amounted respectively to £64,000 and £35,000. No flood in the Irk Valley is said to have occurred since 1872. Voluntary contributions were made towards the relief of distress. and loans were sanctioned by the Department for repair of damage to roads, bridges, sewers and the like. Conferences between representatives of the Local Authorities and the Government Departments concerned took place both in London and in the locality as to the steps to be taken to repair the damage and to prevent such an occurrence in the future. The conclusions reached by the Local Authorities, and also by the Lancashire County Council, were that under the law as it stands adequate measures are not practicable, that a comprehensive scheme for dealing with the river is required, and that this can be carried out only by a single Authority, with control of the river throughout its course, constituted in accordance with the recommendations in the recent report of the Royal Commission on Land Drainage. Wiltshire Avon.-The same problem of unified control has arisen in connexion with flooding at Chippenham, Melksham and Bradford-on-Avon from the River Avon in Wiltshire, of which complaint was made from time to time during the year to the Ministry and also to the Ministry of Agriculture by the Local Authorities and by local residents. The Ministry have suggested, pending the time |