[Report 1934] / Medical Officer of Health, West Suffolk County Council.

  • West Suffolk (England). County Council.
Date:
1934
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1934] / Medical Officer of Health, West Suffolk County Council. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    24/36 (page 22)
    It is well-known that certain sums have been provided by the Government to assist rural water supplies, always providing that the County Council contributes in equal share to the cost of the proposed undertaking. Such an arrangement, to say the least of it, is somewhat hard on those sanitary authorities who have already done their duty in this matter, but there is no escape from the ruling and it is the only way by which progress can be made. It is clear that considerable interest has been aroused by the prospect of grants from the Government, and the County Council, and many proposals for the improvement of supplies have either been carried out or at the moment are under discussion by the controlling authorities; in a later part of this section of the report I give extracts from the District reports relating to this important matter. When considering this question of water supplies, it is interesting to note the rather remarkable variations in rainfall recorded at points within a very small radius. For example, in a table below I give the records for ten years at Ickworth, Hengrave and Westley. RAINFALL. Hengrave. Ickworth. Westley. 1924 29.16 32.53 30.28 1925 23.86 23.69 24.29 1926 25.51 27-54 26.88 1927 29.80 30.10 31.40 1928 21.84 25.07 25.90 1929 19.78 21.21 21.24 1930 24.95 29.88 28.41 1931 24-93 28.27 28.28 1932 23.01 26.43 26.21 1933 21.75 20.98 21.75 244.59 Yearly Average 265.70 264.64 over 10 years 24.45 26.57 26.46 Highest Yearly Average 29.80(1927) 32.53 (1924) 3 Mo ( Lowest Yearly Average 19.78(1929) 20.98 (1933) 21.24 (] It is wot thy of note that the total rainfall over the ten-year period approximates verv closely at Ickworth and Westley, but that it is definitely considerably in excess of the rainfall recorded at Hengrave. This factor is one of considerable importance in considering ques¬ tions of rainfall and water supply, and the varying results obtained over circumscribed areas obviously assume some importance. The explanation of the difference between, say, Ickworth and Hengrave probably lies in the difference in altitude, and it would be both interesting and instructive to have similar figures for comparison in other adjoining districts in the County. EXTRACTS re WATER SUPPLIES AND PROPOSED SCHEMES FROM DISTRICT REPORTS. Boroughs and Urban Districts. Haverhill.—Supply well maintained and no shortage noted. Two samples were taken from wells and two wells were condemned. An analysis of the pipe supply was satisfactory. Sudbury.—Analyses from 4 wells and from 4 pipe supplies were taken. No wells were condemned, and the pipe supply analysis was satisfactory. Supply generally was good and the quantity sufficient. Sury St. Edmund's.—Supply satisfactory for all purposes. Public supply was substituted for 6 well supplies. Public mains were extended by 696 yards to part of area to be added to Borough boundaries on April 1st, 1935- The quality of the water was satisfactory. Newmarket.— Supply satisfactory in quality and quantity. One sample was taken of well-water and four from pipe supplies. The analysis in all cases was satisfactory. Hadleigh.—Piped supply from deep bore-hole satisfactory except for iron in solution. Existing supply will probably be augmented in near future by additional bore-hole. Public supply was substituted for well-water in the cases of 60 houses, and extensions of mains have been carried out to supply 16 new houses. Glemsford.—Generally satisfactory and no shortage has been experienced. The water analysis shows a high content of iron, it is very hard, and there is considerable free carbonic acid gas. General Note. It will be seen in these reports that no serious shortage was experienced in the supplies ot any borough or urban area despite the serious and recurring droughts of the past seasons.