(2)
This resolution refers to two separate and distinct matters, and it will be more convenient to discuss first that which comes last in order, viz., the objection to underground sewers and the desire "that all drainage should wherever possible be carried in open surface drains."
1st. My first remark is that the system of open surface sewers is one that cannot be carried out in Colombo so as efficiently to get rid of the evils and nui- sances which now exist, for
2nd. The primary object of all sewers is to remove as speedily as possible from the vicinity of human habitations the fouled water supply and other liquid refuse; and if a proper system is constructed in Colombo it will, I doubt not, ultimately be utilised to carry away a great part of the solid and fluid dejecta of the population.
3rd. This speedy removal-so essential to the maintenance of safe sanitary conditions—cannot be effected by any channels or conduits whether open or closed which are not laid with sufficient falls to ensure their having self-cleansing veloci- ties.
4th. It is impossible owing to the configuration of its site to construct in Colombo drains on the surface that will conform to this requirement.
The only way to secure self-cleansing sewers in many of the roads is to cut down into them and so create falls steeper than those of the surface, and this must be done in places to the extent of many feet, so that it would be absolutely im- possible to have such sewers open, for the inconvenience would be intolerable, and the cost prohibitive.
5th. Underground sewers are therefore indispensable and if these are designed on proper pinciples and constructed of suitable materials and in a workmanlike manner there is no reason in my opinion why private closets and public latrines should not be adapted to the water carriage system.
6th. This opinion is, I regret, in direct opposition to that of the Council as expressed in their Resolution, but it appears to me that I should not be adequately performing my duty if on that account I failed to advise on this matter to the best of my judgment.
7th. In England there are still a few towns which have the old fashioned cesspits and others where the excreta is dealt with by some form or other of the pail system, but these methods are steadily giving way before the introduction of the ordinary water closet or the slop-closet by means of which the water supply, fouled in every possible way, is carried off by the sewers.
8th. I am free to admit that it may not be possible in Colombo to adopt the water carriage system to so great an extent as is being done at home, but I am quite clear that it would be a mistake to condemn the whole town for all time to any method which involves the retention of human excrement in or adjoining the houses a moment longer than is absolutely necessary.
The foregoing unexaggerated description of the existing arrangements shows that the present system (if system it can be called) is one under which the personal and household filth of the people is retained in, under, and around their dwellings for a time, and to an extent, which can have only one result, viz., a death-rate probably twice as high as it need be and a corresponding amount of sickness aud domestic misery.
Further it is a system in which the method of disposal of so much of the filth as is removed, is crude, unscientific and disgustingly o'jectionable.
So far as my experience qualifies me to give an opinion I have no hesitation in saying that the remedy for these evils is to be found in the provision of a com- plete scheme of underground sewers by means of which all this filth can be speedily removed from the dwellings of the people and discharged into the sea where it can- not do any harm nor give rise to any nuisance.