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Bahádur Dorabji Padamji, President of the Municipality, has rendered good
service to the public by administering a fund for the relief of sufferers from the
plague.
V.—CONSERVANCY IN POONA CITY.
The Plague Committee have attached great importance to bringing the
general sanitation of Poona City up to as high a level as circumstances permit-
ted. The charge of the conservancy of the city was entrusted to Surgeon-
Major Barry on February 27th, and it has remained with him ever since.
2. I am not able to write from personal experience of the sanitary con-
dition of the city before the epidemic commenced. At the end of February
owing to the entertainment of special establishments for sanitary work it was
probably somewhat better than usual. The streets and some of the lanes and
open spaces left little to be desired in point of cleanliness. In other respects,
the conservancy of Poona was about up to the average standard of Mofussil
towns in Western India, and consequently far below what is required by public
opinion in Western Europe.
3. The health of the city necessarily was and is largely dependent on the
arrangements for the removal of sewage. In the western portion of the city a
system of sewers was constructed in the time of the Peshwas. These sewers
have not been superseded by any later improvements and are still in use. No
plan of the sewerage system is in existence, and the course of many of the sewers
is unknown. A large proportion of the branch sewers have been wholly or
partially blocked for years. The eastern portion of the city is unsewered, and
there a system of cess-pools prevails. Surface-water is carried off by gutters
which are usually covered with stone slabs. In parts of the city where there
are no sewers nightsoil is removed from the privies by Bhangis who convey it
in baskets to iron barrel carts which are kept at fixed stations in the city. It
is carried in the carts to the nightsoil depot outside the city.
4. I do not propose to deal at length with the shortcomings of the Poona
Municipality in the matter of conservancy which were brought to light in the
course of our operations, but I will enumerate the principal ones :—
The post of Health Officer was held by a young Brahmin, L. M. & S.,
who was quite unfit for the place. The nightsoil carts were for the most
part in imperfect repair. The stands where the nightsoil carts were kept
were in an offensive state. The number of carts employed for the removal
of sullage water was insufficient.
Dust-bins were not emptied regularly, and rubbish was allowed to
accumulate in open spaces.
The channels or moris leading from the privies to the sewers were
usually more or less blocked. The sewers into which the moris led were
many of them blocked.
The Bhangis as a class were out of hand, and neglected their duties
owing to want of proper supervision. The low-caste quarters of the city
were neglected.
There was insufficient supervision over the conservancy arrangements
generally.
5. To improve the sanitary condition of the city the first essential was to
provide an efficient supervising establishment. Accordingly 18 British privates
with two non-commissioned officers were appointed Conservancy Inspectors.
A respectable English-knowing Native was attached to each -of them as Sub-
Inspector. During a portion of the operations a British Officer was detailed to
supervise them, subject to the orders of Surgeon-Major Barry. The incompetent
Health Officer was discharged by the Plague Committee and Mr. George Guider,
who has since done good work, was appointed in his place. As it was essential
that the sanitary condition of the city should be improved without delay, con.
siderable additions were made to all branches of the subordinate conservancy
establishment.