HH62/1/DUMFRI/11

Transcription

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only one pump to well over 60 families and a population of 414.
Such a supply is totally inadequate, and I am informed that in
summer the pump has occasionally to be locked up and the water
doled out in measured quantity. I consider that for a place such
as this, which within its own limits is one of the most densely popu-
lated localities in the County, a better supply is absolutely necessary.

DISPOSAL OF REFUSE.

The Disposal of Refuse is attended with some difficulty in the
more populous parts of the County. There are two special Drain-
age Districts - Noblehill and Glencaple. Drains can only get rid of
liquid filth, and solids are too frequently left to accumulate in ash-
pits that are badly constructed, being too large, uncovered, some-
times excavated a few feet below the surface, and not lending
themselves readily to the cleansing process. Where drainage is
insufficient these ashpits receive liquids as well as solids, and in
one or two instances have drains running into them. They then
tend to become open cesspools of a most objectionable kind. In
addition to ashpits, there are in many of the villages manure heaps
in close proximity to the houses, some of them so situated that
liquid is allowed to drain from them by a gutter on to the public
road. In addition, the wells are usually placed where they are
liable to contamination from such heaps, and the longer they are
allowed to accumulate the more polluted does the ground from
which surface wells draw their water become. At many farms I
believe that a great sanitary improvement would be effected by
the use of liquid manure tanks, so placed and constructed as not to
form a nuisance, while in more densely populated parts (e.g., that
part of the parish of Dumfries immediately contiguous to the Police
Burgh) it would be well if District Committees had powers to form
Special Scavenging or Cleansing Districts. This is a matter which
has been brought under the notice of the Government by the Society
of Medical Officers of Health, and it is to be hoped that powers
may soon be granted to Local Authorities to form such districts
when and where they may find it necessary to do so. The only
other remedy is an unsatisfactory one, consisting as it does in whole-
sale prosecution of tenants who may find it a difficult matter to
clear away such accumulations.

POLLUTION OF STREAMS.

Closely akin to the question of Disposal of Refuse is that of
Pollution of Streams. I do not think I go beyond the mark when

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I say that there is probably no stream of any importance in the
County which does not at some part of its course receive both
liquids and solids of a kind that must not only more or less
seriously pollute its waters, but are directly prohibited by the Rivers'
Pollution Prevention Act. These are in particular farmyard drainage,
the discharge from water-closets, and solid rubbish shot in to
wait for the next flood to wash it away, while in one or two
instances the refuse of mills and dyeworks is also passed in un-
purified. It is true that we can hardly expect streams to escape
some pollution, and so long as a serious nuisance is not created, or
the water is not used either for domestic purposes or for cattle,
I am not inclined to make too much of it. But in too many cases
the quantity of polluting material is altogether out of proportion
to the volume of water, while some of the streams have to be utilised
lower down their course for the purposes I have indicated. Of the
larger waters, the Nith, Annan, and Esk suffer very serious pollu-
tion. The Nith and its tributaries are polluted both in the upper
district of Nithsdale and in the lower. The pollution in the latter
occurs most seriously within the precincts of the Burghs of Dum-
fries and Maxwelltown. During the summer I took advantage of
an enquiry instituted by the Fishery Board to investigate the pollu-
tion caused by the mills and by the sewage of the Burghs from a
sanitary point of view. Samples of the various mill effluents
showed that most of them consisted of water carrying soapy
matters, wool fibres, and dye stuffs. In one or two sulphuretted
hydrogen was found. The soap and wool wastes give rise to very
unsightly nuisances, particularly in sluggish parts of the stream.
Both they and the colouring matters take up a large quantity of
the oxygen in the river, which is thus deprived of a means of
cleansing itself from the ordinary pollution to which a stream may
be expect to be subject. I must, however, admit that a sample
taken from the centre of the river below the Burgh boundary
showed much less impurity than I expected to find. This I attri-
bute partly to the sedimentation which takes place just below the
Dock Park and partly to the fact that the river is tidal here. No
doubt, when the river is low, this sedimentation is the cause of an
evil smelling abomination, but it is one which does not come within
the jurisdiction of the County Council. Were it not for it the river
below would probably be much more foul than it is. I trust, however,
that the Burghs may at no distant date see their way to the adop-
tion of some purification scheme which would materially improve