Sessional_Paper_1885-1886 — Page 96

the just requirements of manufacturing and non-manufacturing towns. In England, due regard being had to waste, the minimum daily allowance per head of inhabitant is estimated as follows:-

For doméstic uses,

Gallons per day.

7

For street-watering, fire-extinction, and irrigation, 3 Trades and Sanitary purposes,

7

Waste,

Total,

19

London and most of the larger towns of the United Kingdom have supplies considerably in excess of the above figures, but the latter may be taken, under careful regulation as to waste, as sufficing for a European town not exclusively of a manufacturing character. As regards this Colony we have to consider the constant risk to the Public Health from the habits and prejudices of the race who constitute the bulk of our population, the exigencies of our tropical climate, the densely overcrowded condition of our native town, the danger of epidemics from without no less than from within, the certainty of the continued growth and developement of the city and increase of the population, the possible spread in our midst though of course only to a limited extent, of factories and industrial establish- ments, the need of ample facilities for prompt fire extinction, the extreme desirability of water for the irrigation of plants, and last not least the necessity in spite of the utmost vigilance, of providing a large margin for undue waste especially in native tenements. These varied claims cannot but convince even the most sceptical that the water requirements of Victoria are not any less than those of a European city. No new project of supply would be satisfactory to the Colony unless it afforded in conjunction with existing sources, a daily allowance per inhabitant of not less than from 15 to 20 gallons.

So much for our requirements. Let us now see how much water we had when the Pokfoolum reservoir was completed and what allowance we have now. In 1873 Victoria contained about 95,000 inhabitants of which however, excluding garrison and the shipping, only 92,000 may be included in these calculations as water consumers, and the daily allowance was 5 gallons per head made up as follows:-

*

From Pokfoolum,

Wong-nei-Chung Dam,

..... 4.40 gallons.

0.50

"

1

Mint Dam, ...

0.25

"

"}

Glenealy Nullah,

0.10

Wells, Springs and other sources,

0.50

Total,......... 5.75

In 1885 the number of water consumers has increased to over 110,000, but the winter allowance of 1873 remains the same for no new sources have been tapped. The same volume of 1873 therefore has now to be divided among 18,000 or 20,000 additional consumers and this has reduced the allowance per head of population to something over four gallons. Against this reduction however there must be recorded a saving of about half a gallon due to increased supervision against waste.

The difference therefore between the actual volume daily distributed throughout the town, and that required in order, according to European ideas, to satisfy the bare demands of health and comfort, was so wide, that as far back as 1873 it became obvious that any new supplementary works to be of real utility to the population, must yield at least about three times as much water as all existing sources put together. From all the latter we knew we possessed already an aggregate of 54 gallons and the question then was whence to obtain the remaining 134 gallons in order to make up the 19 gallons desiderated. This was the problem to which I was called upon to find a solution in 1873.

Our island is so small that we cannot boast of any rivers or lakes, or of any stream or group of streams sufficiently large to be tapped, filtered, and absorbed into our street mains. In this respect we are less fortunate than English towns most of which derive their supplies from rivers in their immediate neibourhood. Circumstanced as we are, our only recourse is to obtain our supply, by storing descended rain in catchwater reservoirs for use during the long dry season when all streams and natural sources are dried up.

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