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water is carefully looked after in the sense that no waste is allowed. There is 
a distinct advantage in a tropical town of not encouraging water waste ; if there 
is leakage, slop-water gullies and drains multiply, and they soon begin to fill up 
with decomposing foul-smelling water. 
When the conditions existing in the towns of Corosal, Orange Walk, Stann 
Creek and 1 unta Oorda, and elsewhere in the country, are compared with those 
in Belize, it is seen that thatched cottages predominate over zinc or other solid 
roofs. A thatched roof is not a good collecting surface, and the water derived 
Irom it cannot be as good as that obtained from a zinc roof ; it is darker in colour, 
has a flavour, and is much more liable to organic pollution. In those places, 
however, brook or river water supplements the supply for washing purposes, and 
as a rule all that is essential is that more provision be made for public storage vats 
under proper control. 
When in 1899 the discussion on the repeal of the water clauses 39 to 47 of 
the 1894 Ordinance were discussed, the Special Committee then appointed to 
examine the practicability of the clauses stated that the majority of houses had 
proper tanks and that the District Board and the Churches had sufficient storage 
foi the remainder. I hey stated that the Ordinance would act against the poor, 
and probably be found impracticable, and finally that the measure was unnecessary 
under present circumstances. 
The Corosal District Board stated that the owners of thatched 
houses should not be compelled to erect vats. Things have changed 
since this report, ci controlled and protected wetter supply is now an 
absolute necessity before any town in the Yellow Fever Zone can be said 
to be secure , and especially before a Colony like British Honduras , 
hemmed in by countries where yellow fever is endemic , can be declared 
safe. 
If the vats were adequate in Belize in 1899 they are now very' in- 
adequate, and a crop of barrels and miscellaneous receptacles have grown up 
and largely supplemented them, and have been the means of breeding the 
Stegomyia fasciata on a vast scale. It is imperative that a new Water 
Storage and Screening Ordinance, on the lines suggested by the Committee 
which met us, should at once be proceeded with and put into operation as 
soon as possible. In the meantime, a serious responsibility rests upon the 
community. Only a fraction of the vats are screened, the oiling is not 
sufficient and does not appear efficacious, and is objected to by a large 
number, and there is a very great number of barrels which have not been 
touched. 
A Screening Ordinance should be introduced at once, and the vats or 
tanks screened permanently with the wire gauze, or, pending the arrival of 
suitable permanent material, with cheese cloth, the barrels also to be covered 
with cheese cloth until they are replaced by vats. 
An outbreak of yellow fever has passed through Belize ; to-day 
(November) the water supply is as vulnerable as it was previous to the 
epidemic, and still furnishes an immense Stegomyia breeding-ground. 
