FOURTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT 33 



is being carried on to determine certain factors influencing the 

 chlorination treatment of water as applied to Manila and other 

 municipal supplies and on some of the analytical problems 

 connected with such determination. A complete general study 

 of the Manila city water supplies is about finished. In spite 

 of this our knowledge of the quality and quantity of available 

 Philippine water supplies is insufficient to enable us to reserve 

 the most valuable springs. The time has come for more careful 

 safe-guarding of the water supplies of the Philippine Islands. 

 It seems to me that a duty the Government owes to future genera- 

 tions is to provide adequate water supplies now. A special 

 fund for this investigation was recommended in my appropria- 

 tion estimate, and I had hoped that the work might be pushed to 

 completion. The laboratory methods of water analyses have 

 been adapted and revised in an effort to secure the greatest 

 amount of information from them. A field reconnaissance of 

 water supplies has made fair progress. If we are able to 

 perform the necessary and desired cooperative work with the 

 sanitary commissions and investigate the municipal wells and 

 medicinal and thermal springs, we shall be able to specify 

 the normal constituents of waters and to develop standards 

 of purity, both chemically and bacteriologically, for different 

 localities. When this has been done, the Government can make 

 reservations of suitable areas from the public domain surround- 

 ing springs of value. 



The failure of the service pipes of the Baguio water-supply sys- 

 tem led to an investigation that demonstrated the existence of 

 corrosion due to the high acidity of the water. Methods for 

 correcting the excess acidity were proposed and are soon to be 

 put into use. 



A very important investigation of Philippine clays to deter- 

 mine their suitability for the manufacture of paving brick, roof- 

 ing tile, sewer pipe, etc., is under way. It is hoped that we 

 shall be able to find material for making a light-weight roofing 

 tile, which can be supported upon a light and cheap structure 

 to take the place of nipa roofing. In this way destructive fires, 

 which frequently occur in towns throughout the Philippine Is- 

 lands, can be reduced in number and extent. 



In 1913 the Bureau of Science tested and analyzed the differ- 

 ent roofing materials submitted in the contest for a cheap sub- 

 stitute for nipa roofing. We were thoroughly convinced that 

 by far the most satisfactory method for producing an inexpensive 

 roofing would be the fire-proofing of nipa itself. The ordinary 

 fire-proofing methods used gave promising results. This problem 



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