293
* Vider mains "atlock" "ayelela.
14. Cbat in lieu therefore of the very drastic measure of cutting off all water service from "Tenement houses" throughout the year, Your Petitioners humbly suggest that an arrangement similar to that suggested by Mr. Chadwick in his Report, dated Hongkong, 10th April 1902, and which was published in the Hongkong Government Gazette of the 11th of the same month, should be adopted in the case of "Tenement houses" so that the occupants of "Tenement houses" may at least be supplied with an intermittent supply during the period which will elapse before the gathering ground and reservoir capacity of the Colony have been sufficiently increased to admit of a constant supply. This would at least enable occupiers of "Tenement houses" to avail themselves of a water service whilst the reservoirs are full to overflowing.
Such an arrangement would also greatly facilitate the detection of the waste of water which is alleged to take place principally in Chinese "Tenement houses" and would provide a ready and effective means of checking any such waste and reducing it to a minimum.
The portions of the Report to which Your Petitioners crave leave to refer are sections 40 and 41 which run as follows:
EXTRACTS FROM REPORT.
40.---The following arrangement would greatly improve matters. At present, house services are connected, directly, to the street mains. I suggest that subsidiary mains, wrought iron pipes, of small diameter, should be laid parallel to the principal mains (“Rider-mains"), on one or both sides of the street, thus ---
A
HOUSE-SERVICES.
RIDER-MAIN.
PRINCIPAL MAIN.
RIDER-MAIN.
HOUSE-SERVICES.
B
The house-services should be disconnected from the principal main, and connected to the rider-mains. In this way, the Town would be divided into blocks of convenient size, the water-supply to which could be turned on and off, independently and in rotation. The water could then be turned on to and shut off from a large group of blocks, in rotation. No. 1 block would receive water from 2 a.m. to 4 a.m., No. 2 from 4 to 5; and so on.
To short, the Town would be supplied just as London was, when the intermittent system was in force. The principal mains would always be charged, under full pressure. No pollution could enter, through open ball-valves---rather an important point, at the present moment especially.
41.---I recommend this arrangement, not merely because it will improve and facilitate the management of an intermittent supply, and mitigate its evils, but also because it will be a permanent improvement. It will facilitate the shutting-off of house-services, because the valves, on the rider-mains, may be so arranged, as to be practically inaccessible to unauthorized persons. Such is not the case with the house-service cocks, now in use.
It will greatly facilitate the application of the existing law, with regard to the prevention of waste. Arrangements may be made, whereby the test-meters may easily be applied, when required.
The detection of waste will also be facilitated. The Inspector need only apply the "stethoscope," to one of the valves, commanding the whole block. If there be no sound of flowing water, he can pass on to another block. He need only examine, house by house, if he find symptoms of leakage, within the given block.
Lastly, it will be most advantageous, if the streets are asphalted, or otherwise improved. The Rider-mains may be laid along the side-walks, so that if a house-service requires renewal, re-construction or repair, the street surface need not be disturbed.
15. That from the above Report Your Petitioners gather that the Hongkong Government would meet with no insurmountable difficulty in allowing owners of "Tenement houses" to obtain an intermittent supply of water by the system suggested by Mr. Osbert Chadwick and the necessary rider-mains can be a permanent and not a temporary arrangement for the purpose of supplying "Tenement houses" with a constant or an intermittent supply or being entirely closed according to the rainfall.
16. That by the adoption of such an arrangement as that suggested by Mr. Chadwick, discomfort, expense and every inconvenience resulting from the incessant daily carriage of water from the Street Hydrants to the different floors of "Tenement houses," many of which are four storeys high, by means of coolies and buckets would be avoided, certainly for the greater portion of each year, and last but not least the great incentive which this manual labour would be to Chinese not to cleanse their dwellings would be avoided, for it must be apparent, that if the Chinese occupiers of the higher floors of "Tenement houses" are necessarily compelled to carry by hand or to pay for the carriage by hand of every drop of water to their dwellings, the very smallest quantity possible will be used for cleansing purposes.
17. That the carrying out of Mr. Chadwick's suggestion by the laying of rider-mains may involve considerable expense and the Hongkong Government may not feel disposed to bear such expense.
This can however be easily avoided by an arrangement with the owners of "Tenement houses" for the bearing by them of their proper proportions of such expense. Your Petitioners are confident that from Chinese Owners no serious opposition to bearing their fair share of such expense would be met with.
18. That as to the value placed by the Sanitary Authorities in England on an adequate water supply being connected with every house it may not be out of place to refer here to Section 48 of the Act of Parliament entitled "An Act to consolidate and amend the Laws relating to Public Health in London" 54 and 55 Vic. Chap. 76. Such Section is as follows:-
48.--(1) An occupied house without a proper and sufficient supply of water shall be a nuisance liable to be dealt with summarily under this Act, and, if it is a dwelling-house shall be deemed unfit for human habitation. (2) A house which after the commencement of this Act is newly erected, or is pulled down to or below the ground floor and rebuilt, shall not be occupied as a dwelling house until the sanitary authority have certified that it has a proper and sufficient supply of water, either from a water company or by some other means.
19. That if an adequate supply of water is considered a vital necessity for sanitation in a temperate climate like England how much more should not a constant supply of water be considered an absolute necessity to every "Tenement house" in a tropical climate like Hongkong.
20. That the effect of the Ordinance as passed will, Your Petitioners venture to submit, be to give to the occupiers of each "Tenement"---generally the wealthier classes---as distinguished from the occupiers of each "Tenement house"---generally the poorer classes---a full and ample supply of water for all purposes, whilst the occupiers of a "Tenement house" will at all periods of the year and even in the rainy season have to carry every drop of water they may require from the Street Hydrant to their own quarters entailing considerable expense or loss of time through crowding at the Street Hydrants and inconvenience and insanitation, owing to the constant passage of coolies carrying buckets of water up and down the steep and narrow staircases and the over dirty, wet and slippery state of such staircases together with many other inconveniences.
21. That when it is remembered that plague has been constant in Hongkong since the year 1894, Your Petitioners feel the present measure is calculated to increase and not diminish future out-breaks of plague, for how with no supply of water laid on to any "Tenement house" can the occupiers of "Tenement houses" be expected to comply with the frequent and peremptory requests of the Sanitary Board to keep their houses and persons clean by the constant use of water when every drop will have to be carried from the Street Hydrants.
22. That your Petitioners whilst fully recognising that some temporary provision is essential owing to the present unfortunate lack of reservoir capacity yet they humbly ask that the least inconvenience possible may be placed upon the occupiers of Chinese "Tenement houses" by means of legislation whereas by the present Ordinance it seems highly probable that the occupiers of Chinese "Tenement houses" alone will be made to suffer permanently owing to the present state of affairs.
23. That your Petitioners humbly ask your attention to the fact that during the present summer, namely from the 1st May to the 18th August 1902, 81.29 inches of rain have fallen and that had the reservoir capacity of the Colony been double its present size Your Petitioners venture to say that such reservoir capacity would have been filled to overflowing.