The Water Supply
Dr. Hector has made a report to the Corporation as to the condition of the water now supplied to the Wellington citizens. That report is as follows:
“The amount of oxygen now required by this water to oxidise its more easily oxidisable matter is .049 grains per gallon. As the quality of the water has lately been questioned, the return for ten previous months is here given for comparison; from this, it will appear that the water is as pure as it was last midwinter, although the advancing summer season is beginning to affect it slightly, and should warn consumers to see to their house filters being in good working order: 1879 – 9th April, .225 grains of oxygen required per gallon; 29th April, 0.178. 1880 – 5th May, .076; 1st June, .074; 8th July, .052; 1st August, .06; 4th September, .048; 3rd October, .047; 4th November, .036; 3rd December, .049 – James Hector, M.D.”
In plain terms, Dr. Hector’s report amounts simply to this – that of one particular class of impurity, the oxidisable matter, there is less than there was last autumn, although more than in the spring months just expired. This is all very well, so far as it goes, but it does not go nearly far enough to be satisfactory to the water-consumers of this city.
It is hardly necessary to point out that the chemical impurities in water do not by any means comprise the whole or even, perhaps, the most dangerous of the pollutions by which it is liable to be defiled. The latest and best authorities on the subject are clearly agreed that the gravest peril may attach to the use of water which passes very favorably the ordinary chemical tests, and it appears to be generally accepted now as a medical axiom that water once defiled, especially with a class of impurities to which we shall refer later, cannot again be rendered absolutely innocuous for domestic consumption.
Water, although essential to bodily health and personal cleanliness, is unfortunately also the most eligible vehicle for the dissemination of certain repulsive forms of “dirt and disease.” It seems to be established by the strongest possible chain of inductive reasoning that the “germs” from which are believed to spring many of the “ills which flesh is heir to,” are conveyed into the human body with especial facility by drinking water, and these germs have hitherto completely baffled detection by chemical analysis, although their pernicious action on the corporal frame, when once admitted, is as manifest as the fact that they have been thus conveyed is clear and indisputable.
The microscope has thrown a vast amount of light on this important subject, and the gravity of its bearing on the public health is not even yet thoroughly appreciated. Now we have it on clear and irrefutable evidence that the carcasses of sheep and dogs are lying by the score scattered about the watershed of the Kaiwarra stream, by which our main reservoir is fed.
The owner of the watershed admits, with a sort of grim candour, the existence of these various sources of defilement, but he not altogether disinterestedly suggests that the whole evil could have been prevented and could still be remedied by the Corporation purchasing the watershed from him. Possibly, but sometimes a remedy is more grievous than the disease it seeks to cure; and, seeing that Mr. Finnimore asked the modest price of £50,000 for the property, it is not very surprising that he and the Corporation should have been unable to come to terms.
Now that the new supply from the Wainuiomata will soon be available, it would be out of the question for the Corporation to purchase the old watershed at a fancy price. The only course now open to the Waterworks officials seems to be to exercise the strictest vigilance, so as to discover and remove as promptly as possible impurities.
Meanwhile, the Wainuiomata waterworks are proceeding rapidly towards completion, and, pending the supply of that purer water, the use of filters ought to be universal, and never omitted under any circumstances whatever.
Tags: Newspaper Waterworks
