Dr. Airy's report to the local government board on the sanitary state of the Knighton registration district (Radnorshire).

  • Airy, Hubert.
Date:
1878
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Dr. Airy's report to the local government board on the sanitary state of the Knighton registration district (Radnorshire). Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.

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    3oa Sanitary ad- ministration. 6 devolved to take steps to bring to a decision tbis long delayed question of water supply and drainage for Presteigne. With regard to the past administration of the Sanitary Acts in the Knighton Union, I think it is my duty to draw attention to the long course of delay and neglect on the part of the Sanitary Authority in dealing with the wants of their district. It cannot be said that the Sanitary Authority have been ignorant of those wants. Since 1872 they have received reports from their Medical Officers of Health in which the necessity of better water supply, better drainage, better protection of dwellings from damp, and other requirements were plainly set forth. Those reports came to the notice of the Local Government Board, and they from time to time have made inquiry of the Sanitary Authority as to the steps that had been taken or were proposed for the improvement of the district. Hitherto the answers to these inquiries have been wholly unsatisfactory. Totakea single case, that of the village of Beguihly. In Julyl874the Medical Officerof Health (Mr. Covernton) reported “ In Beguildy Village the water supply was contaminated by sewage containing the excretions_of typhoid “ patients during the fever epidemic. During the present summer water has been carted from a pure source “ half a mile away (viz., the River Teme). A pure water supply might be obtained at little expense from the “ adjacent hills. There is no drainage in the village of Beguildy, and, until lately, no privies of any descrip- “ tion. The sanitary improvements ordered here have only been partially carried out. The water supply is “ bad, and will remain so until it is obtained from sources above the churchyard and neighbouring farm “ premises.” During the next two years the Board made inquiry, seven times repeated, as to the steps which the Rural Sanitary Authority proposed to take. To these inquiries the Guardians either returned no answer at all or returned answers which showed that nothing of any value was being done. On April 21, 1876, the Board having received the Annual Report (for 1875) of the Medical Officer of Health, wrote :—“ From the report of Mr. Covernton now before the Board, it would appear that drainage is “ still wanting, and water supply impure in many parts of the district; that nuisances abound, some of which “ have been specially reported, without any steps being taken for their abatement ; that over-crowding exists ; “ that some houses are unfit for habitation, and that a great number are without privy accommodation. “ Having regard to the general condition of the district, and to the mortality which has already occurred from “ diseases which almost invariably owe their prevalence to the neglect of proper sanitary measures, it appears to “ the Board that the Rural Sanitary Authority are incurring a very grave responsibility in neglecting to perform “ the duties which the Legislature has imposed upon them.” Further information was requested in six weeks’ time. This request was repeated three times. On October 14, 1876, the clerk wrote that instructions had been given to the Inspector of Nuisances to give orders for the removal of all nuisances, and for the provision of privies, to the occupiers and owners of premises, Avhere necessary; that at the last meeting of the Authority proceedings were directed to be taken against those pai’ties who had neglected to comply with such orders, and that the Authority had also requested their Inspector of Nuisances, with the assistance of the Medical Officer of Health, to furnish them with a special report of the water supply of the village of Beguildy, and the best means to obtain a pure and sufficient supply. (This preliminary step of ordering a “ special report ” is taken, be it observed, more than two years after the want of good water at Beguildy had been brought pointedly to the notice of the Sanitary Authority.) On October 26th, 1876, the Board requested information as to further steps taken in regard to the water supply of Beguildy. This request was repeated on January 8th, 1877. On February 19tli, 1877, the clerk writes: “ With respect to the water supply of the village of Beguildy, the “ Sanitary Authority have on several occasions discussed the advisability of constructing some works for such “ supply, and for this purpose have examined two or three plans submitted to them by their Inspector of “ Nuisances, but they do not consider it advisable to cause any such works to be made. In March 1877, the Medical Officer of Health reports that “the condition of the different villages in the “ [Beguildy] district is almost exactly the same as reported last year, no improvements having been effected “ either as regards drainage or water supply.” At the present time, after four ) ears of trifling with this question, on which human lives depend, the Sanitary Authority leave it as it was when their attention was first drawn to it by their officers. The action of the Authority appears to have been limited to orders for removing the most conspicuous nuisances, for providing privies in some parts of the district, for laying slop drains in one or two villages, and for troughing the eaves or excavating earth from the backs of some houses which had attracted attention by special incidence of fever ; small measures, which the owners or occupiers of property were expected to carry out, and which did not cost the Authority much trouble or much expense. On looking through the journal of the Inspector of Nuisances, it is seen that, of the cases of sanitary defect which were reported to the Authority and were by them ordered to be remedied, several were allowed to continue unremedied, and the orders allowed to lapse. There are perhaps some grounds for hoping that improvement is about to proceed more rapidly in the district. In the first place, the recent enlargement of the Knighton Union has altered the constitution of the Board of Guardians ; and, in the second place, there appears to be a better disposition on the part of some of the chief land- owners to comply with the requirements of decency and health,’'and to remove the scandal of unwholesome habitations from their several estates.