32.— SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN CAPE COLONY. 

 By J. Edward Fitt, A.M.I.C.E. 



In dealing with the question of Sewage Disposal in Cape Colony 

 very little can be said about what has been done up to the present 

 in th.o direction, as with the exception of Cape Town, Sea Point, aiid 

 Simon's Town, which have water carriage systems of sewerage with 

 sea outfalls, all the Towns and Villages of this country adopt the 

 pail system, and the night soil from these receptacles is invariably 

 disposed of by bur}ing in the ground, the manner of carrying out 

 the work varying only according to the nature of the ground available 

 for the purpose or to the fancy of the contractor who undertakes the 

 sanitary removals. 



A feeble attempt is made by some Municipalities to cart away 

 the urine, slop-water, and other liquid sewage, and dispose of this 

 by emptying it upon the land set apart for the reception of the night 

 soil ; but as a rule this portion of the sewage is allowed to soak away, 

 if it can, into the ground, or to lind its way into the nearest water- 

 course. 



The only works for sewage disposal that have been carried out 

 in this country are some small installations of the Scott-Moncrieff 

 plants which have been erected in several places to deal with the 

 sewage from private houses and institutions, some of which have been 

 very successful in their action, and the works which have recently 

 been established at the Native Location, Maitland, for the purpose 

 of dealing with the sewage of a population of about 7,000. These 

 works, which will be referred to later on, comprise a septic tank, 

 single contact bacteria beds, and final treatment of the effluent b\ 

 intermittent filtration through land. 



From this summary of the present sanitary conditions in the 

 Colony it will be seen that the question of Sewage Disposal here is 

 all for the future. We are fortunate in this respect that before an} 

 important works of this description have been carried out, the problem 

 which for so many years defied solution has, after much expenditure 

 and many failures, been practically sslved by modern research which 

 has shown that, under favourable conditions, sewage is capable of 

 i)ringing about its self-purification by means of bacteria which are 

 indigenous to all sewage, and that these favourable conditions are 

 not difficult of attainment, so that this country will be saved the costly 

 failures that have resulted from all attempts to deal with sewage by 

 chemical treatment which so many English and European Towns 

 have experienced when dealing with the question of the disposal of 

 their sewage. 



The Bacterica] treatment of Sewage is effected by : — 



(a) Septic Tanks. 



(b) Contact Beds. 



(c) Intermittent continuous filtration. 



