Report of the Medical Officer of Health / Municipality of Colombo.
- Colombo (Sri Lanka). Public Health Department
- Date:
- [1911]
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Report of the Medical Officer of Health / Municipality of Colombo. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![APPENDIX C. REPORT OF THE MEDICAL OFFICER OF HEALTH FOR 1912. 1.—Meteorology. For the first time for a considerable number of years there was a marked improvement in the rainfall, which totalled during the year 101 * 14 inches, as against the average for 43 years of 88‘ 23 inches. This average is made up of Fort and Observatory records, corrected to four feet above ground level, as in the case of the 1912 record, and was, together with the other data given in the Appendix, kindly furnished by Mr. Bamford of the Observatory. 2.—Topography. The total area of the town, including the eastward and Wellawatta extensions, is 8,676 acres, or 13| square miles. The eastward extension, which was included in 1910, covers an area of 1,593 acres, and had in 1912 a mean population of 11,286; while the Wellawatta extension, which was included in 1912, covers an area of 620 acres, and had a mean population of 7,499. These two extensions therefore represent an aggregate area of 2,213 acres, with a population of 18,785, i.e., equal to nearly half the population of Galle. The town is roughly spindle shaped, being 8 miles long as the crow flies from north to south, and 2$ miles wide from east to west at its broadest part. Within this area there are 115 miles of public streets in addition to many miles of private roads and lanes. The difficulty of transit, due to the long, narrow shape of the town, is increased by the manner in which it is intersected by the lake, and by the numerous large swamps which cut into it from the east, and is still further increased by the great deficiency of public streets. One of the principal wants of Colombo is a more complete scheme of public roads, the absence of which to serve as a guide for the development of the town, especially in the matter of buildings, is in a large measure responsible for its present irregular, inconvenient, and insanitary disposition. Until street lines have been laid down for the whole of the undeveloped parts, no check can be put upon this insanitary development, which is going on so rapidly at present. Viewed from a height, such as the top of one of the tall buildings in the Fort, there is extraordinarily little evidence of the 38,667 dwellings which shelter the quarter million of inhabitants in the town. This is due to the great luxuriance of the vegetation here, and especially to the enormous numbers of coconut trees which tower above and obscure the buildings. A great deal of Colombo, especially in the residential quarters, is literally choked with vegetation, which acts as a great obstruction to the ventilating action of the breezes, rendering whole streets of houses hot, stuffy, and muggy. The principal offender in this respect is undoubtedly the coconut palm, which, while it gives comparatively little shade, when thickly planted, very effectually shuts out the breezes. It would be greatly to the benefit of the town if some control could be exercised over the growth of vegetation, especially in proximity to dwellings, and a beginning might with advantage be made in the case of coconut palms, which might be prohibited within say 100 feet of each side of a public road. This would enable the breezes to sweep down the streets and ventilate the houses. As matters stand at present there are many streets which, when viewed from the end, appear as little more than a narrow slit between dense masses of coconut palms. The proposed measure would undoubtedly be unpopular, but then so are most sanitary reforms until the benefit of them has had time to be realized. The suffocating effect produced by the overgrowth of vegetation in Colombo is accentuated by the fact that most of the town is low-lying and flat, especially in the southern, which is the chief residential district. In the northern and to a less extent in the eastern parts there are a number of low hills and ridges, the highest point being Elie House reservoir, which is 90 feet above mean sea level. The large swamps which cut in from the east and run up to the bases of these hills become bienially flooded and converted into large sheets of open water, as the result of overflow from the Kelani river. Notwithstanding the regular occurrence of these floods, there are many dwellings which have been erected below flood level, and which are in consequence damp and unfit for human habitation. The proposed building by-laws will make the erection of such dwellings illegal, but the existing low-lying dwellings must also be dealt with, the remedy in most cases being demolition followed by drainage and filling. If the owners are unable to drain and fill up the land to the required level, then the land must remain unbuilt upon. 3.—Vital Statistics : General. “ Vital statistics form the basis of sanitary reform, especially in regard to legislation.”—(Newsholme.) If> therefore, legislation is to follow the most effective lines, it must be based upon a correct interpretation of these statistics ; but a careful examination shows that a correct interpretation of the Colombo statistics is dependant upon a thorough knowledge and a due appreciation of the influence of the various local conditions, both past and present, which have affected, and in many cases still affect, the sanitary state and health of the town. As these do not appear to be generally recognized here, it may be of interest to mention a few of the chief of these conditions, and of their bearing upon the health of the town as indicated by the vital statistics. Colombo, like all old established towns, has to a large extent been developed upon what are now recognized to be insanitary lines. Not for over a hundred years, not in fact since the days of the Dutch up till the present time, has any effective legal control in the matter of the erection of buildings been granted by the Legislature to the Sanitary Authorities. The result, as was inevitable, has been that landowners have from time immemorial gone on erecting buildings practically where they chose, and how they chose, and being either ignorant or heedless of the sanitary requirements as regards air space, lighting, ventilation, drainage, access for cleansing, and such like, the town has become progressively more and more congested with ill-designed buildings, and in this respect has become more and more insanitary. During recent jrears, when something of the nature of a building boom has been going on consequent upon the abnormal influx of people, as shown by the phenomenal intercensal increase during the recent decade (32=1 per cent.), this insanitary development has been unusually active, much of it having moreover been carried on in defiance of the warnings of the Council’s officers, who have been powerless to prevent it owing to the lack of effective legal control. It is important to consider the effect which this has had upon the sanitary state and health of the town. Overcrowding of the land with improperly designed buildings has necessarily led to great interference with the ventilation, lighting, and drainage of the dwellings, and this, as is well known, is invariably associated with a high mortality from lung diseases. Not only so, but, as the mischief has been cumulative, so should one expect the evil effects also to be cumulative, and that such has been the case is shown by the vital statistics, for the mortality from the pulmonary group of diseases has been steadily rising since as far back as reliable statistics go, viz., 1897. This is particularly marked in the case of one of this group, viz., pneumonia, on account of its being less amenable than almost any other infectious disease to direct preventive measures, such as disinfection, isolation, and cleansing. Phthisis, however, which is another member of this group, although it steadily increased up till 1909, has during the last three years shown a marked tendency towards 77-13 f 305 ]](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b31753371_0003.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
