Volume 3

A treatise on hygiene and public health / edited by Thomas Stevenson and Shirley F. Murphy.

Date:
1892-1894
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A treatise on hygiene and public health / edited by Thomas Stevenson and Shirley F. Murphy. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    52/492 (page 40)
    Supply for public baths or trading or manufacturing pur- poses (Sec. 65). Protection of water (Public Health Act, 1875, Sees. 68 and 69 ; Waterworks Clauses Act, 1847, Sees. 61 to 67). Eivers Pollution Prevention Act, 1876 (Sec. 8). Public Health Acts Amendment Act, 1890 (Sec. 47). Waste or misuse of Water by consumers (Waterworks Clauses Act, 1847, Sees. 54 to 60; Waterworks Clauses Act, 1863, Sees. 16 to 20). Communication pipes to be laid by the inhabitants (Waterworks Clauses Act, 1847, Sees. 48-53). to consumers to use less water than they require for household purposes. Any sanitary authority may, if they think fit, supply water to any public baths or washhouses, or for trading or manufacturing purposes, on such terms and conditions as may be agreed on between them and the persons desirous of being so supplied ; and may if they think fit construct any waterworks for the gratuitous supply of any public baths or washhouses established for private profit or supported out of any poor or borough rates. Special provisions are contained in the Public Health Act, and the incorporated sections of the Waterworks Clauses Act, 1847, imposing penalties on the wasting of water, and enabling sanitary authorities to take proceedings against persons offending against these provisions. Independently of these provisions every sanitary authority may enforce the provisions of the Rivers Pollution Prevention Act, 1876, in relation to any stream being within or passing through or by any part of their district. They may also, in districts in which Part III. of the Public Health Acts Amendment Act, 1890, has been adopted, take proceedings against persons who disregard the prohibition contained in Section 47 of that Act, and who throw or place, or suffer to be thrown or placed, into or in any river, stream, or watercourse within the district any cinders, ashes, bricks, stone, rubbish, dust, filth, or other matter which is likely to cause annoyance. Any such offender is liable to a penalty not exceeding 40s., which may be recovered summarily. This is a very useful and effective remedy, capable of being promptly enforced. If prosecutions under this section were more frequent than they are, they would probably go far towards removing the very pre- valent belief that a watercourse may properly be used as the readiest means of getting rid of filth and rubbish. The sections of the Waterworks Clauses Acts, 1847 and 1863, which are incorporated with the Public Health Act, 1875, give sanitary authorities ample powers of proceeding against consumers who waste or misuse the water supplied to them under the Act. So far we have dealt with the powers and duties of the sanitary authority in connection with the provision of a water supply, and the recovery of charges from the water consumers. As a general rule, when the water is provided, the general public are only too willing to avail themselves of it, and to pay the necessary water rates or water rents. For the purpose of enabling them to obtain the supply, the provisions of the Waterworks Clauses Act, 1847, with respect to the communication pipes to be laid by the inhabitants are incorporated with the Public Health Act, 1875. They enable the inhabitants, on giving fourteen days' notice to the sanitary authority, to lay service pipes from their premises to the mains, after obtaining the consent of the owners or occupiers, if any, of any lands intervening between the premises and the water mains, and, after two days' notice to the sani- tary authority, to make the necessary communication between their pipes and the mains under the superintendence and according to the directions of the surveyor or other officer of the sanitary authority, if he sees fit to attend. For this purpose the pavement may be broken up, but must be reinstated at the cost of the persons laying the com- munication pipes. There are, however, not unfrequently, cases in which, when a wholesome public supply has been provided at a considerable expense,