1937-10-16 — Page 8

THE CHINA MAIL, OCTOBER 16, 1937.

RIVERS THAT ARE A MENACE

E

VERY day hundreds of millions

of gallons of dangerous sew- age are pouring into and con- taminating the rivers of Britain in the most densely-populated dis- tricts.

Fears of "economy" in local government have left many dis- tricts with antiquated sewage dis- posal systems, totally inadequate to deal effectively with what, in time of drought, may be a grave peril

TO HEALTH

three times as long. Even with- out the tides the problem would be serious.

The present scandal echoes the horrors of the middle of the last century, when the stench of the Thames at Westminster was so great that Members of Parlia ment complained that it was im possible to use the library

committee rooms.

Or

Worst situated of all is London, where the tidal Thames carries pollution backwards and forwards,

London has now forgotten the as far up the river as Tedding-

cholera epidemics which once ton, before it finally finds its way took a regular toll of lives in the to the open sea.

The daily discharge from the two LCC outfalls at Beckton and 'Crossness is 250,000,000 gallons. Despite the expenditure of more than £500,000 by the London Council since Labour came into power, the system of treating this sewage remains gravely out of date.

summer, but the need for a thor- ough reform of the sewerage sys- tem is daily becoming more ar- gent.

>>

For years the worsening condi- tion of the Thames water has caused the Port of London Autho- rity grave concern. They have... made repeated representations to the London County Council, which, as a result, is now pleting large purification works.

-com-

If this summer is a dry one, the Thames, from the heart of Lon don to below Tilbury, may be- come little better than a sewer. Every incoming tide carries vast quantities of sewage up-stream to Tower Beach, where thousands of East End mothers allow their years since the discovery in Man- chester of the system of sewage children to play, and beyond.

Tests have shown that even dur- purification known as the “acti- ing the heavy winter flow it takes vated sludge process"-a system. revolutionised sewage five days for impurities to pass that has

Although it is well over twenty

one

་

from Teddington Weir (the upper treatment throughout the world- limit of the tidal river) to the London, when Labour took over

in 1934, had

experimental ore-

mere plant, capable of treating a In the summer, with a trickle of water, by comparison, fraction of the daily flow. passing over the weir, impurities capacity was 10,000,000 gallons a

two or day. may linger in the river

THE

Å

WORLD GOES BY By "ULYSSES"

.

Its

the

are said by exp

ESSES US

effluents of the highest possible purity

A report submitted to the Coun- Although the much lesser like- cil by the committee in charge of lihood of drought there makes main drainage reveals the extent the fear of disease, more remote, of the scandal. Sewage as treat the sewage disposal problem of ed by older methods still used, is Glasgow and the great industrial as bad, by the time it flows into belt surrounding is still acute. the river, as is sewage before it Nearly £2,000,000 is being spent begins its treatment by modern by Glasgow to bring its system up methods of purification.

to date. Sludge is already dis- To keep the stench within charged by two-Corporation boats bounds this virtually untreated down the Clyde in the open sea. sewage is dosed with chemicals. Not so happy is Paisley. Cón- They are better than nothing, but tinual complaints are made of the they cannot (in the words of the stench from sewage as the River same committee's report) be re- Cart runs through the town. Medi- garded "as other man temporary cal authorities have condenmed it palliatives."

as unhealthy, and the town is em- "Lavender thrown on a cess- barking on a scheme costing hun- pool" was how a former member dreds of thousands of pounds to of the committee described it to purify the River me this week.

From Dumbarton, the River "It is our view that it is the Leven daily carries thousands of Council's duty, without further tons of germ-laden refuse into delay, to take adequate measures the Clyde. The river, at its mouth, towards achieving permanent im- is notoriously unhealthy, and Dum- provement in the state of the barton is to spend huge sums to river," the committee reported. modernise its system of sewage "We consider that an immediate disposal. extension of the existing activat- Official quarters in Lanarkshire admit "spasmodic" fouling of the ed sludge plant is imperative.”

2.

१५

and be

Five additional sludge activa- Clyde beyond Rutherglen, tion works were proposed and hope that something will soon approved by the Council, and it is done about it.

Edinburgh has a curious way of now hoped to have these new units

remedying the fouling of the Forth operating this year.

They will give a total capacity with unpurified effluent. For years of 60,000,000 gallons a day. But bathers near Portobello complain- 200,000,000 gallons will still flow ed of the waters of the Firth.

So the Corporation, to attract daily into the Thames so imper mere.

back visitors who were being fectly treated that it will be potential menace to public health chased away, built at Portobello the finest open air swimming lake While London is a decade or

as the more behind the times, West Mid- in Scotland! Only then dlesex, on London's borders, sets question of the aniquated sewage the lead. Last October the Mid-system considered.

Nothing has yet been done," dlesex County Council opened one. of the largest and most up-to-date and tides still wash back to the main drainage systems in the foreshore the sewage which has

been dumped into the river. world. Built at a cost of $5,500,- 000, it serves an area half as large again as that of the London County stems which prevail in country Council.

To be added to this tale of the big cities are the even worse sy-

towns and villages. Though no LURID account of life in strong, and of the International

Seventy miles of main sewers, epidemic thrusts the matter before Shanghai, it many of them larger than tube. Shanghai or rather of the Police 6,000 strong.

the face of authority, research would appear, is a centre of all railways, have been built, link would show how much preventable extensive underworld of that city forms of vice and rackets organing up the whole area, and old

diphtheria and other disease is was given to the Huddersfield ised on a big scale. There is an or works are now being dismantled. caused by primitive methods of

Smug- Rotarians at Whiteley's Cafe, states ganised armed banditry.

Throughout the

small area,

sewage disposal. the Huddersfield "Examiner" re-gling, motor banditry, extortion, streams, which had become little. It is, like the drinking water cently by Mr. Champeny, retired the white and yellow slave traffic, better than open drains, are once central executive should give its from the Settlement Police about gambling, opium smuggling, armed again running clear. This scheme problem; a matter on which the six years ago. It was a most in-gun-running all are organised was one of the far-seeing public insistence and its aid. teresting address, though Mr. The bandits, the men at the head works made possible by the last Champney did not give his audience of the organisations live in magni-Labour Government, with the help much time to digest it as he went ficent houses, Mr. Champney said, of unemployment grants. Now the along, for he poured it forth in a with liveried servants, and are to effluent at the Mogden purifica- sort of tornado of words. Rotarian be seen in the best seats in the tion works is clear, sparkling George Beever, who moved the vote theatres.

water, far purer than the water of thanks, humorously remarked The speaker went on to say that of the tidal section of the Thames that it was the nearest approach to the members of the S. M. Police when it passes through London. 2. machine-gun that he had come were armed with automatics and Millions upon

across. The title of the address machine-guns, and wore a bulletteria, which, ions of bac

world's market -- (laughter)

J

other circum-

was "Thirty Years in the Shanghai proof protection that covered all International Police Force." Mr. the vital parts of the body. Each stenches and spread pestilence stances, would create appalling Champney described how Shang-nationality represented kept a fleet and diseases, at Mogden play a hai, the largest open treaty port in of armoured cars always in readi the Far East, was wonderfully pro- ness for contingencies. In 1926vital part in purifying the effinent and the sludge which is deposited tected against times of trouble. many as 62 members of the fores

in the settling, tanks. The city had its own currency, were wounded by armed criminal fluctuating twice daily on the and 104 criminals were shot dead An outstanding feature of the by the police. When innocent per-process is the complete freedom from smells and flies. Another and every nationality published its sons were injured in machine gun skirmishes in the streets they were

remarkable point is that the The port was governed by the compensated by the municipality, sludge is made to produce more world's Powers, and Mr. Champney The police escorted money all overi than enough methane (marsh rattled off the numbers of ships the city, and even found a guard, gas) to drive all the dynamos and and men the Powers kept at hand for the rent collector. (Laughter). other machinery in the large in case of need; told of the block-They guarded all churches and power house. houses that encircled the city, of cinemas and dances where theref

own newspaper.

the thousands of watchmen kept for were Europeans, and also protect Manchester, 35 miles inland, the protection of property alone,ed the factories:

dumps her most

offensive sew#-}

of the special police of 2400 busi- And now you know what that age at sea. The city claims to ness men, the river police 600 big, bad city is really like.

lead the world 'in sewage treat-

NACET

MADE IN ENGLAN

FOR PEO

shaves from

"NACET

BLADES

"