HH62/2/SUTHER/11

Transcription

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CREICH - Population, 2017; acres, 107,652.
Visits were made to Bonar Village. Its Water Supply is of varied
origin, but mostly comes by wells and lead pipes and from the face
of the hill behind the village. There is no corporate organisation or
committee for supervising it as in a proper Water District. Middens
and heaps of refuse are frequently causing nuisances, and there is no
recognised system of general scavenging. An attempt to carry out a
suggestion for the erection of one or two public urinals and privies in
necessary spots has not yet been successful; but the necessity for a
larger number of privies and properly-constructed ashpits still
remains.
A case of overcrowding in a bothy for salmon fishers was
investigated, and the cause soon thereafter ceased. A new bothy
has since been erected.
In Rosehall District houses were found with insufficient and
inefficient structural requirements, and at our instigation action was
taken to supply them; but, still, in some places the Water Supply is
not free from objection.

DORNOCH - Population, 2404; acres, 30,189.
The Burgh has the supervision of its own sanitary affairs, but
though the County Buildings are within its area, they are the property
of the County Council, and I made special report on their state of
insanitation, and signified the necessity of their being joined on to
the Water and Drainage System presently being introduced to the
Burgh.
Throughout the Parish many middens are placed too near the
public roads, causing nausea in passers-by, and, as in other County
Districts, heaps of refuse are permitted to stagnate near some of the
houses. A sharp look-out will be necessary to prevent any pollution
of the small burns entering River Evelix, which now supplies the
Burgh with water.
Embo is a large fishing village, and its condition has for the
last three years frequently been brought under the attention of the
Parochial Board as a Local Authority, and also the County Council,
but nothing of a practical nature has yet been done, or even consi
dered, for the remedy of its defects of water supply and drainage.
It is an admirable illustration of a place in which the germs of epide-
mic disease would find a happy hunting ground if once they got a
footing, as undoubtedly in the past history of diseases they often did.
The water used is such as is got out of low-lying pools in the grass
behind the village; and some out of an iron pipe from an agricultural
field after sufficient rainfalls. Supplies of greater purity are distant
from one-half to one mile. That procured from the exposed pools,
which is at times what is most used, is simply abominable, and is
rendered so by all the surface pollution from the excreta of human

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beings and the numerous wandering pigs. I have no hesitation in
saying it has caused disease especially among children, who in this
village will be seen to have very high death rate. At my sugges-
tion some years ago the surface drains in Embo were made deeper,
and a slight improvement resulted for a short time, but it did not
continue, as no washing out of their beds could be done - there being
such a deficiency of water for ordinary domestic purposes that none
except slop water could be used for flushing purposes. Moreover, the
pigs ploughed up the middens near the drains, and further blocked
them. Much surface pollution of earth exists, as so few privies are
built. There is overcrowding of people in this badly situated village.
The tables will show this to be so to a very marked degree.
No remarks of a special nature can be made on the rest of the
Parish.

DURNESS - Population, 960; acres, 140,812.
The want of water of proper qualities is a most prominent defect,
particularly in the village and houses near. A great deal of lime is
present in the water, and none of softer quality is taken in by gravi-
tation. Much hardship is therefore entailed on people who have to
go considerable distances for a suitable supply, or store up what rain
water they can. Consequently there is not a sufficient means of
flushing out drains and the few water-closets which exist.
Much danger attends the use of water-closets in a place only
scantily supplied with water, as the traps dry up, and backflow of
sewage gas to the house is then uninterrupted, and I know dangerous
disease to have resulted in this way.
The misused road drains are frequently choked up with waste and
sometimes putrid materials, and whatever surface wells are used can
readily be polluted.

EDDRACHILLES - Population, 1409; acres, 133,555.
An extensive Parish, with a people, a great many of whom, in
Kinlochbervie District especially, have to combat many difficulties and
natural deficiencies by sea and land which greatly militate against a
tranquil healthy life. The houses in the main are very poorly built,
and a good few have one sole entrance for people and cattle. Infec-
tious Diseases, like Measles, are very readily spread in houses and
circumstances of such poor capabilities, as regards isolation. There
can be no proper isolation or nursing of the sick in these houses,
and epidemic disease of a virulent type consequently commits wide-
spread and unpreventable damage.
Even though the schools are closed during epidemics, the potent cause
of epidemic fever clings to the clothing and furniture of such smoky,
damp, and ill-drained houses, and those not stricken by sickness
themselves may yet communicate it unwittingly to their friends and
neighbours with whom they come casually in contact. Ophthalmic
Diseases are very common in smoky houses. Inquiries and proceed-