SANITATION AT CAPE TOWN. 
SANITATION AT CAPE TOWN. 
By H. C. Krnesmitz, M.A. 
[ Abstract. } 
CapE Town occupies a plain about a mile in width between 
the bay and Table Mountain. This plain stretches round 
the bay in the form of a horse-shoe, several! miles in length. 
The original water-supply was taken from the httle River 
Riebeck, and this stream is still used by the native women 
for the clothes of the community, and receives the drainage 
of a continuous chain of suburbs extending from Cape Town 
to Wynberg, which have uncontrolled access to it without 
any system of sewerage. The water is now, consequently, 
totally unfit for human consumption. The present water- 
supply is of good quality, derived from the higher levels 
of the mountain, and giving pressure enough to be utilised 
for electric lighting. The average daily, consumption of 
water is about 30 gallons a head, or 2,000,000 gallons a day. 
The collecting area is limited, and the rainfall upon it varies 
from 46 to 62 inches a year, with an annual evaporation 
at the Molteno reservoir of 61 inches. The total expendi- 
ture on waterworks is £234,000 for the last ten years. In 
Cape Town the Municipality have laid down sewerage works 
at a total cost of £270,000 during the same period. There 
are still 550 houses in Cape Town undrained——exclusive of 
the suburbs above-mentioned; and £3500 a year is spent 
on the carting away of night-soil. 
There are incomplete works at Port Elizabeth for sewering 
the town, but they have been discontinued on account of 
insufficient water-supply. 
In Durban there are waterworks furnishing over 44 
gallons of water a head for domestic use; and about half 
the houses are drained in connection with the public sewers. 
At Johannesberg the water-supply is very inadequate, so 
no attempt can be made to sewer the town. Part of the 
houses are furnished with closets with movable pails, and 
an introduction has been made of the Liernur pneumatic 
system. It is described as very successful, not only in 
Johannesberg, but also at Madras, Amsterdam, Leyden, 
and Trouville; and a description is given of the working of 
the system. 
