SOUTHERN ENGLAND

Evening Star, Issue 21750, 19 June 1934, Page 5

SOUTHERN ENGLAND

LONG DROUGHT CONTINUES NUMEROUS HEATH FIRES Press Association —By Telegraph—Copyright. LONDON, June IS. A heat wave is being experienced in southern England, the temperature being 87deg in the shade, without a sign of the Jong 'drought breaking. There are numerous heath fires, including one on the King’s estate at Sandringham, although Sandringham House is not in danger. The King has often shot in the wood where the flames are now sometimes 50ft high. The newspapers are calling for emergency measures to deal with the water shortage and mobilising the Army Aledical Corps in order to deal with possible epidemics and the purification of ponds and streams contaminated through the drought.

VILLAGE WELLS DRY SERIOUS NATIONAL DANGERS The agricultural correspondent of the ‘ Observer ’ wrote on April 15: — It would be a grjive mistake to. suppose that recent rains, by refreshing the thirsty face of England and giving back to ponds and shallow wells a brief period of activity, have solved the drought problem. The earth has sucked up rain like a sponge, but there has not been nearly enough to renew her springs, fill deep wells, or restore depleted rivers to their normal level. Though Jupiter Pluvius has made some small amends for past neglect, the spasmodic generosity of three weeks cannot overcome the parsimony of nine months. In many parts of England water is still rationed; there are country districts past numbering where men and women must tramp a mile or more for drinking water which may not be fit to drink, and go further afield if they wish to wash clothes.

You can find pumps that are locked up for more than twelve out of twentyfour hours, towns where the water undertakers cut off supplies from 7 p.m. till 6 a.m., rural areas where people are forced to seek the ditches or take condemned water from-rivers whose pollution is at once a national scandal and a public danger. The Government’s response to a real crisis is good up to a, point, but, in the opinion of many authorities, the administration of any new Act should be given to the county councils and to no smaller bodies. So far as one can see many rural district councils tend to regard even a small addition to the rates as a greater evil than drought. Parish council; incline naturally to support the parochial view, and there isia most unfortunate tendency among both bodies to hold that there is no need to give supplies of pure water, to men and women who have been brought up to do without them. " They’ve been drinking what they call ditch-water all their lives; it agrees with them.” These are the ipsissima verba of a Fenland farmer—he has a deep well for family use. THE M.O.H. In the course of a recent journey through England to study conditions in what might be called water famine areas, it was abundantly clear that the county medical officers of health are competent to deal with the situation if they are given the means and the authority. - ri Tn every office of a county M.O.H. you will find a carefully prepared map showing the areas where shortage exists, and you may even find, as m Warwickshire, for example, a complete list of the rural districts, with the nature of their supplies and its quality or lack of quality. Accurate surveys are being or have been made; comprehensive reports have been prepared or are in preparation. The difficulties before the country are largely due to divided counsels. A scheme that will benefit a wide area may be upset over the question of the threepenny rate, as was recently the case at Spilsby, in Lincolnshire. Some counties with limited resources and great difficulties to face are doing everything that is possible; others who, with considerable resources and • lethargic public bodies, are holding up progress. Buckinghamshire may be cited as a county that is meeting its troubles in the right spirit. While adequate schemes are moving towards fulfilment water is carted on lorries to remote rural districts and sold at the rate of 1,000 gallons for ss. There is a monetary loss on this transaction, but it helps the people who cannot help themselves, Counties like Derby and Nottingham, rich in natural supplies, help other counties less fortunately situated. Elsewhere you find Hull radiating pipe lines in all directions, and even solving the problems of farmers who labour on the -waterless wolds of the East Riding. DRINKING DITCH-WATER, Turn to Lincolnshire, that rich and favoured county, holding the most productive land in England and many very wealthy farmers. There you shall meet men and women condemned to drink fen ditch-water, children suffering from water-borne skin diseases, a widespread shortage that is a danger to health. It is endured because the authorities will not tackle their problem and overrule the opposition of men who are not concerned with the trouble of their neighbours. Progressive and unprogressive counties lie cheek by jowl. In Bedford, for example, they treat the water of the Ouse, and it is excellent for drinking purposes. In the next county Huntingdon, those who drank from the Ouse last summer suffered from gastritis. There are villages in the latter county where the wells are padlocked, and there is a notice that they must only be used for drinking, villages where farmers water their stock at ponds covered with slime. Asked why the people of a certain parish did not petition the rural district council, a representative said; “We’ve tired ourselves out asking for help. Nobody will listen to us.” It is noticeable that the counties that neglect their water problems fail _ to tackle such other problems as sanitation and slums. • DAIRIES THREATENED. The threat to the dairy industry that the shortage lias brought about is* a serious one. Farmers will be in great trouble should the summer before us prove dry. In many areas they have not sufficient water to cool the milk, scald the churns, water and wash the cows, and enable the milkers to keep clean. Men who have sought earnestly to develop a pure milk business have found in many parts of the country that they cannot carry on because there can be no pure milk without clean water. The

nation’s health may suffer rude shocks in the months before us. A curious and disturbing aspect or tlie situation lies in the waste of water that is still going on. In the River Stour, for example, one of the sources of Essex Supply, something not much less than ten million gallons must run to waste every day. You can find countless little streams that are allowed to lose their waters quite close to villages in which the well is dry and a daily pilgrimage obligatory. ; Everything points to the need lor action by large and responsible bodies. The' county councils, with the necessary Government aid and authority, could place England beyond the reach of danger. . , But if small obstructive bodies are allowed to persist in their successful endeavours to wreck any enterprise that will touch the pockets, the new legislation may merely ■ provide them with another weapon. The failure of local authorities to deal with the Rats and Mice Destruction Act affords abundant evidence of their limitations.