[Report 1930] / Medical Officer of Health, Smethwick County Borough.
- Smethwick (Worcestershire, England). County Borough Council.
- Date:
- 1930
Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
Credit: [Report 1930] / Medical Officer of Health, Smethwick County Borough. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![SANITARY CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE AREA. WATKH 8U]’PLY. The water supply of the town, which is supplied by the South Staffordshire Water Works Company and is derived from deep bore holes chiefly through red sandstone, continues to be of excellent quality and samples taken during the year show it. to be very free fiom organic contamination. The water has no pluinbo-solvent action and its hardness is about 20 parts per 100,000. On the 1st April, 1928, the Borough boundaries were extended by the inclusion of a portion of the WaiTey district and one or two houses in the added area are supplied bj- private wells. Analyses of the water in each case show that altliough the waters are not quite free from vegetable organic matter they may safelj’ be used for drinking purposes. A certain number of the older houses still derive town’s water from common stand pipes i?! the yards, but the number of the.se is being steadily reduced year by year. As the hou.ses are dealt witli under Section 17 of the Housing Act, 1930, the provision of a separate water supply to each house and the demolition of the old stand pipe is secured. RIVERS AND STREAMS. Periodical inspection of the brook courses within the Borough have shown that in spite of the fact that many of the streams are uncovered where they pass the back gardens of inhabited houses there is no serious contamination or obstruction taking place. Occasionally the attention of the tmiants of houses adjoining the brook courses is drawn to the provisions of the Rivers Pollution Prevention Act, 1876, and to Section 8 of the Smethwick Corporation Act, 1929, which prohibits the deposit or the conveying into any brook course within the Borough of any .solid matter .so as to interfere with the pi'oper flow of the water course. I am informed by the Borough Surveyor that nearly half a mile of the Thimblemill brook course where it passes through Messrs. Gue.st, Keen and Nettlefolds Recreation Ground has been reconstructed. Also a temporary bye-pass has been laid at Rabone Lane, a point at which flooding had been from time to time experienced in times of heavy rain. DRAINAGE AND SEWERAGE. The sewage of the town is dealt with by the Birmingham Tame and Rea Drainage Board, of which Smethwick is one of the constituent authorities. In my last survey repoit I commented on the fact that the .system of ventilating the sewers by means of ventilating man-hole cov'ers at the street level was open to the objection that some of the.se ventilators, according to the direction of the wind or of the air currents in the sewer, did at times act as outlets for foul sewer air. During dry seasons when the sewage was of a concentrated character many complaints were received of offensive smells from ventilators, particu¬ larly in the Sandwell district. Since that time a considerable improve¬ ment has bee?i effected by the erection of Gin. steel ventilating columns connected to the summits of several sewers in the Sandwell area by means of Gin. stoneware pipes. These ventilating cohimns provide outlet shafts for foul air enabling the ventilating man-hole covers to](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b30091226_0081.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
