This, however, was but part of the provision which had to be made. During the régime of the Metropolitan Board of Works, more than 1,100 miles of new sewers were laid by Vestries and District Boards in their respective districts, and since the creation of the London County Council of 1888, further additions of 1,516 miles have been made, making a total of over 2,600 miles.
All this work was essential to enable a proper system of house drainage to be carried out, and as the drainage of houses into the local sewers was compulsory, the general system of drainage was thus rounded off or completed.
The change effected thereby in the conditions of life in London has been remarkable. There are no longer open ditch-sewers polluting the air with their pestilential abominations; no longer streets without sewers, and houses without the possibility of drainage.
In the Report of the County Council for 1902–3, prepared by the Clerk of the Council, there is given a calculation of what these works annually accomplish.
“The flow of sewage during the year, namely 87,556 million gallons, represents a canal 24 feet wide with a depth of 9 feet, running day and night at the rate of 2 feet per second; or it may be considered as equivalent to a lake of 44 square miles, or about one-third of the area of the county of London, with a depth of 11⅕ feet.”
To the efficiency and thoroughness of the present system is primarily due the greatly improved condition of the public health of London as compared with 1855.
Water was another of the absolute necessities of existence and of sanitation. An ample supply of good water is essential for health; and the numerous outbreaks of typhoid fever which in recent years have occurred in England with a heavy death-roll, testify to the dangers incurred by bad water, and the necessity for the utmost care being taken to secure its being pure and uncontaminated.
The supply of water in the eighteen-fifties had been very limited in quantity, and, with the exception of that supplied by one company, abominable in quality. And progress to a better state of things was slow. Improvements were made most unwillingly and haltingly by the Water Companies, and only under Parliament’s reluctant compulsion, whilst the inaction of most, and the obstruction of some, of the Vestries and District Boards, and the hostility of “owners” of houses to being put to expense for water fittings, still further impeded reform, and perpetuated the evils inflicted upon the inhabitants of London—suffering, disease, and death.
The “slaughter wells” and the sewer-ditches were, however, filled up and those evil sources of supply ended. And a supply of water was gradually extended to the streets which were without any, and an increased supply to others which had but little; but it was not until 1899, the very end of the century, that the County of London was, for the first time, receiving a constant supply in accordance with the provisions of the Metropolis Water Act of 1871. And by slow degrees the sources of defilement of the water were reduced, and a larger proportion of the dirt ingredients filtered out, until at last some of the worst evils connected with the supply were rectified. And in 1891 it was enacted by Parliament[191] that a dwelling-house without a proper and sufficient supply should be a “nuisance” liable to be dealt with summarily.