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THE CUBA REVIEW. 



Reservoir at Vento, which supplies all Havana and suburbs with the finest of drinking water 



DANGEROUS OLD WATER SYSTEMS. 



Sanitary Conditions in Camaguey. 



In a report made by Dr. Juan Guiteras 

 of the National Board of Sanitation, he 

 has recommended the rushing of work 

 on the aqueduct for Camaguey as a 

 measure of imperative need to improve 

 the sanitary conditions there. 



The city, says the doctor, has grown. 

 There are big industries, a trolley car 

 system and many other modern im- 

 provements, but residents are still 

 obliged to secure a supply of water from 

 the old "tinajons" and from cisterns of 

 rain water. 



These systems, very old and anti- 

 quated, gave out during the last drouth 

 and people had to drink water from 

 places where it was plainly polluted, and 

 this caused intestinal diseases. 



A great deal of trouble has also been 

 experienced by the people persisting in 

 resisting sanitary ordinances. Owing 

 to the use of shallow wells, which fre- 

 quently were within a few feet of the 

 foulest kind of cesspools, the Sanitary 

 Department ordered all the cesspools 

 cemented. This was done, but the peo- 

 ple found that while before the cesspools 

 were kept constantly drained by filtering 

 into the wells, the cemented cesspools 



overflowed and had to be cleaned out 

 occasionally. This made entirely too 

 much work, even if it protected the lives 

 of their families, and they proceeded to 

 break the cement at the bottom of the 

 cesspools with crowbars, thus leaving an 

 egress for the filth. 



The recent widespread prevalence of 

 fever in the city is attributed to this, for 

 as the wells became dryer the greater 

 became the percentage of foulness in the 

 water and fever was the natural result. 



The main pipe carrying the water sup- 

 ply to the City of Havana from the 

 Vento Springs is to be changed from 32 

 inches to 42 inches, in order to suppjy 

 the new Havana suburbs. 



An aqueduct is urgently needed in 

 Cienfuegos, as the city is now getting 

 its water supply from some lagoon here 

 and the water is not drinkable. 



One of the largest abattoirs in Cuba has 

 just been built at Cienfuegos by Champion 

 & Pascual, the contractors. It has a capa- 

 city for fifty cattle and fifty hogs per day, 

 is modern, fully up-to-date, built of brick, 

 and cost $25,000. The operation of the 

 plant was at once begun, the government 

 having accepted the building. 



