[Report 1893] / Medical Officer of Health, Doncaster County Borough.

Doncaster (England). County Borough Council.

Date:: 1893

Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1893] / Medical Officer of Health, Doncaster County Borough. Source: Wellcome Collection.

110/136 (page 56)

Sanitary Work. Ventilating and Flushing of the Sewers. ater Supply, have been properly disinfecte 1. We are forced still to rely upon the old untrustworthy means of storing with the fumes of burning sulphur. In reporting upon the Hospital, I omitted to note that a long needed want was last year provided, viz , i a bath room outside the actual hospital block where patients have a final bath and change of clothing before returning to their friends. But a steam disinfector is equally necessary for our work in controlling the spread of infection. In order to prevent any accumulation of foul air in the sewers, 12 additional upright shafts have been provided. There is need for an increasing number of those, for there can be little doubt that as the sewer outlets in Gfoole are periodically closed through the high tides, and especially when there is also a great deal of fresh in the liver, ventilation by road grates is not a safe method. There must at such times be a filling up of the sewers by retained sewage and surface water and a consequent driving out of the air of the sewers by every opening, therefore the number of ventilators by upright shafts should, I think, greatly exceed the openings at the street level. As last year there was a very limited supply of water to be had from the water mains for flushing, it was necessary to obtain an additional supply for that purpose, first by a bored tube well in Hook road and also by an arrangement with Mr. Timms to utilize the condensing water from his mill. Some amount of water is also obtained for flushing from an open ditch at the far end of Pasture-road. For the district of Old Goole the well and flush tank there have been altered, so as to increase the volume of water. In addition the street gullies were during the summer and autumn months very frequently flushed and disinfected. The Surveyor reports ‘that 38 gullies have been fixed in the streets in place of brick cesspools. There has been a decrease in the number of new buildings elected. Plans for 88 dwelling-houses have been passed, and 12 for other buildings or alterations * The arrangements for the purchase by the Local Board of the Gas and Water Works formed the subject of an inquiry last year by an Engineering Inspector of the Local Government Board. That Department has not yet given its decision. The proposal to add to the present supply now obtained at Rawcliffe Bridge, by sinking from 600 to 1,000 feet deeper, was adopted after considerable inquiries as to the nature of supplies in the surrounding districts, and also on the recom- mendation of Mr. De Ranee, of the Geological Survey. Several well waters have been analysed, these vary very slightly in character, and although not entirely free from organic impurities they could not be condemned ns unwhole- some. At the present time fully three-fourths of the houses are supplied with the town’s water.