HH62/1/FIFE/37

Transcription

[page] 36

stratum, the water for drinking and other domestic purposes is pumped.
These two holes are not unfrequently within twelve feet of each other,
and sometimes even closer. The contents of the filth hole, or cesspool,
gradually soak away through the surrounding soil, and mingle with the
water below. As the contents of the water hole, or well, are pumped
out, they are immediately replenished from the surrounding disgusting
mixture. This polluted liquid is consumed from year to year, without
a suspicion of its character, until the cesspool and well receive infected
sewage, and then an outbreak of epidemic disease compels attention to
the polluted water." These remarks, with very little variation, could be
applied to the water supply of Hillend, of Crossford, and of Torryburn
(so far as its wells are concerned). Epidemics of typhoid fever in my
cognizance have led to the knowledge that Hillend and Crossford had
polluted water supplies.
It has been forcibly impressed on me that the manner in which
wells near to houses may be polluted is not sufficiently understood, and
the following advice seems necessary. A well is a hole sunk in the
ground with sufficient depth to tap the underground water. The source
of this underground water may be near or remote, but is derived from
the rainfall in any case. The sinking of a well into the underground
water-bearing strata is to make this the centre of a drainage area of
varying extent. When the surface of the water in the well is lowered
by pumping, or other means, the drainage area is extended a distance
varying, it may be, 15 to 160 times the depression in the well. That is
to say, if the well is emptied by three feet of the depth of water in it,
the drainage action may extend from the centre to a distance of from
15 to 160 yards. In this way pollutions from ashpits, gutters, cess-
pools, byres, &c., may be sucked into the wells from distances which
seem impossible. These are briefly the reasons which render wells near
inhabited places dangerous sources of water supply. It is sometimes
possible to diminish these risks by sinking the wells to solid formations,
puddling and cementing the walls, and raising them above the level of
the surface; but these means only secure a certain amount of filtration
of the water before it reaches the well. Filtration, if carried on in the
household manner slowly and carefully, may improve a water, but it
cannot be relied on when the filtering medium is impregnated with the
organic impurities which pollute the soil round all the houses; nor can
it exclude the specific cause of typhoid fever. Wherever possible, my
recommendation for water supply must be, that a water supply, which
is not quite removed from the dangers of organic pollution, should be
substituted by a supply from a source far removed from such dangers.
Experience has taught that a gravitation supply is the best of all systems.

GENERAL SANITARY CONDITION, SEWERS AND DRAINS.

Aberdour has two Special Drainage Districts. The system in
Easter Aberdour is modern, and the sewers are provided with flushing
tanks and with ventilating manholes. The outfall sewer is carried out
to sea. In Wester Aberdour there is an entire absence of ventilators
in the system, and the outfall sewers are not carried out to low water,

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and sewage matters are thus liable to be brought back by the tide.
This I have proved by experimenting with floats. The outfalls should
be carried out to low-water level, and ventilators should be provided for
the sewers. There is not sufficient disconnection in many cases
between the house drain and the sewer. Matters such as these are of
extreme importance, especially in a summer resort, as Aberdour is.
The villages of Cairneyhill, Comrie, Crossford, Crossgates, Carnock,
Hillend, Gowkhall, are not provided with proper means of drainage.
Some of those villages are in a decaying condition, and an assessment
necessary to provide proper water supply and drainage cannot well be
borne, and this fact must be taken into account. The want of proper
drainage would not be so serious if the water supply were not, in so
many cases, from shallow wells, and thus apt to be polluted by the
soakage, which finds its way from houses into the gathering ground of
wells.
There are Special Drainage Districts in Kelty, Limekilns, and
Kincardine. The systems of sewers at Kelty and Tulliallan require
better means for flushing and ventilation. A sewerage system, when
faulty, is often worse that no system at all, as gases generate where
flushing is insufficient, and, being confined under great pressure with
defective ventilation, tend to break out into situations where they should
not be found. These conditions also demand that there should be the
best possible system of disconnection between the sewer and the house
drain, so that sewage gases may not be "laid on" to the house. The
question of the disposal of sewage falls to be considered under this
section, but, following the arrangement determined on so as to prevent
undue repetition, I shall refer to this in Kirkcaldy District Report.

GENERAL CONDITION OF HOUSES.

It will be understood that, as my term of offices dates from so
recent a period, little or nothing has been done in regard to this. In
certain cases, where insanitary conditions were indicated by the occur-
rence of zymotic diseases, and the inspection of the houses made impera-
tive in consequence, any structural defects were put to rights. Such
insanitary conditions as dampness of the walls, from want of proper rhones
and conductors, have been frequently pointed out and dealt with, but
there are very many houses in the District with structural defects, which
should be put to right without delay, and not require the notice of the
Public Health Department at all. By the terms of the Housing of the
Working Classes Act, the duty of seeing that all houses in the District
are in a satisfactory condition is imposed on the Local Authority. No
action has as yet been taken under these Acts, but a systematic
inspection of the whole District will have to be made, in order to ascer-
tain what houses, if any, are in such a state as to be considered unfit
for human habitation. As Sub-section A of Section 16 of the Public
Health Scotland Act is to be read along with these Acts, a reference to
it will show what conditions are to be considered as rendering houses
unfit for human habitation or use.
There are many houses in the District, judging by my general inspec-
tion, which fall short of an ordinary standard of fitness for human