72 FOEESTS, WOODS, AND TEEES 



and the streams feeding them. This protection is in- 

 adequate, as anything that happens to be on the gathering 

 ground may be carried down into the reservoir in time 

 of floods or heavy rains. When houses or farms exist on 

 the gathering ground, serious impurities, such as the excreta 

 from a typhoid case or the contents of a cesspool on a farm- 

 steading, may be swept into the reservoir. It has been 

 found difficult in practice to compel farmers living near 

 a stream in a watershed to re -arrange their middens, 

 cow-houses, etc. The diversion of sewage from farms by 

 drains is scarcely an adequate protection. Wyrell (1) 

 points out that the gathering ground is frequently not 

 under the sanitary jurisdiction of the town owning the 

 waterworks, but is under the perfunctory care of the rural 

 sanitary authority. The Swansea Urban Sanitary Authority 

 has arrangements by which its inspectors report weekly on 

 the condition of the farms on the catchment area, cases 

 of infectious disease being notified by telephone. 



It is now held by eminent engineers that in order 

 to prevent pollution of the water supply from these 

 gathering grounds, the entire area over which rain is 

 collected must be owned by the authority responsible for 

 the waterworks, and must be managed solely in the interest 

 of the water consumers. 



The opinion of Mr. Joseph Parry (2), long the engineer 

 in charge of the Liverpool Waterworks, is as follows : 

 " Notwithstanding the sparseness of the population in most 

 of these areas, great difficulty is experienced in keeping the 

 standard of purity of the water at the level demanded 

 by modern hygiene. It is most undesirable that the 

 water for domestic consumption should be polluted by 

 human sewage ; and rigorous methods should be adopted 

 to protect the streams and rivers in the gathering grounds 

 from contamination by pathogenic organisms. Efforts made 

 to prevent fouling by putting in operation the provisions 

 of the Public Health Acts, the Eivers Pollution Act, and 

 the bye-laws of conservators have proved ineffective. In 

 consequence of the inadequacy and failure of these statutory 



