Annual report of the Medical Department / Colony of Singapore.

  • Singapore. Medical Department.
Date:
[1949]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Annual report of the Medical Department / Colony of Singapore. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    56/222 (page 44)
    There have been the usual numbers of complaints of nuisance mosquitoes, and investigations have frequently shown that the nui¬ sance has an extremely local origin. The erection of good residential property in areas largely occupied by vegetable gardens and fish ponds gives rise to a clash of interests between the householders and the gardeners which has no easy solution. Spraying of houses with D.D.T. has been resorted to in spme cases, and if householders would pay for this service it could be offered more freely. Sewage and Refuse Disposal Scavenging Refuse is collected from the household and public dust bins, and from the drains and roads and back lanes by the scavenging labourers every morning. It is then carried in hand carts, either direct to the disposal site, or to various collecting stations. At the collecting stations, of which there are nineteen, it is deposited into large bins with lids. From here a contractor carries it in his lorry to the disposal site. There are in use several methods of final disposal. At Bukit Timah and sixth mile Dunearn Road the refuse is composted and this method is used to a limited extent at Changi. The difficulty is to dispose of the compost; the main demand comes from Europeans with gardens. At Changi, Serangoon, Bukit Panjang and Bukit Timah incinerators are used and in smaller villages the oil drum. For many months of the year disposal by tipping was in use, but it was dis¬ covered that large numbers of flies were breeding in the tips. So this practice has been abandoned in all areas where incineration is possible; where it still continues a liberal application of D.D.T. powder is added to control flies. Refuse collection was started in the Holland Road new residential areas this year, and in five other small villages. The incinerator at Bedok is in the process of being repaired. The contract system for the removal of refuse has definite dis¬ advantages and the rapid urbanisation and suburbanisation of the rural area will probably necessitate a change to more modern methods of refuse carriage in due course. Conservancy The more well-to-do have septic tanks for the disposal of night- soil but the main standby in the rural area is the bucket latrine, or in the truly rural districts, the open pit latrine. Nightsoil is removed from the bucket latrines by contract labour and, theoretically, is disposed of by trenching. In practice it is highly probable that a very considerable amount of nightsoil finds its way to the vegetable gardens. To make a start in controlling this unsatisfactory situation all arrangements have been made to start Rural Board nightsoil collections and disposal in the villages of Bukit Timah and Bukit Panjang on the 1st January, 1950. Two large septic tanks have been re-habilitated, three nightsoil lorries have been purchased and a shed to house them erected by the Health Department. If this scheme is successful further districts may be included later. /