LONDON IN 1960.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXX, Issue 3780, 4 January 1908, Page 3

LONDON IN 1960.

Population of 16,000,000;

The Metropolitan Water Board is engaged in trying to solve the great problem of Bond on’s water supply fifty years hence, when the population within its area will be more than doubled. As a step towards the solution of the problem the board is now erecting in various parts of London large storage reservoirs.

The experts of the Water Board calculate that by 1916 the population of London will be 8,000,000, and that the year i 960 it will be 16,000,000. Whence is to come the unpolluted water to supply that vast aggregation of human beings ? That is the very serious question which it is necessary for the present authorities to answer for the sake of coming generations. Mr CL -CL Easton, Mayor of Fulham and a member of the Loudon Water Board, told a representative of the Daily Mail that the matter was receiving the very earnest attention ot the board. “ At present,” he said, “ London’s water comes principally from the Thames, taken out between Hampdon and Staines. It is possible that with the increase of people and new means of communication the Thames valley may have a population of two millions. Will it then be possible to draw upon that necessarily polluted wate for a supply? Shall we have to go further up the river for it ? If so, how far up the river will it be practicable for us to go ? Those are some of the questions we have to deal with. Fifty-five per cent, of our water comes from the Thames, about 20 per cent, from]the Lea, and something under 30 per cent, is pumped from wells. The suggested solution of the problem of the future, continued Mr Easton, was to secure water from the rivers at flood time and store it. Already great reservoirs were being provided, reservoirs which would contain more water than the cubic space of the interior of St. Paul’s Cathedral, It had been found that water not altogether pure became pure by natural action after storage for a few weeks.

“There is actually stored in London at the present moment,” said Mr Easton, “ enough water to last for some months.”