8
REPORT OF THE KING INSTITUTE, GUINDY
Tiruvannamalai.—Although a pump lifts the water from the Kalyani well into an elevate
d
tank with a pipe line leading the water therefrom, people are allowed to draw water direct from
the well using their own vessels and polluting the supply. This is particularly dangerous because
the town is a big pilgrimage centre and this well forms the main water-supply.
Vellore.—Owing to drought an auxiliary supply from a well in the bed of the Palar River
has been adopted. This well appears badly situated, not far from a burial ground, but a careful
control of the quality is being maintained with a view to the introduction of systematic chlorination
whenever necessary.
3. Jail supplies.—Details are given in the Table XV. Wells in all the jails
except Rajahmundry have yielded badly polluted water. Even the Cannanore
Jail supply has had to be chlorinated this year. As suggested in my last report,
local investigations are urgently called for to determine why the water in these
usually deep wells should contain so many coliform organisms.
In the Bellary Jail visited by Mr. Raghavachari, the " Kavalai" system of
bailing out water was found to be the cause. At Cuddalore, the covering of the
well was not water or dust-proof and men walking over the covering could
contaminate it.
4. Railway supplies.—Details are given in Table XV. The supplies at Pakala,.
Tanjore and from the well near the pumping shed at Waltair were very bad on
each occasion in which they were examined.
There were definite improvement during the year in the quality of the water
supplied at Erode and Podanur railway stations.
5. Types of filters.—Slow sand filters have not yielded any better results
than they did last year. Mechanical filters at Erode and Masulipatam have
yielded variable results, probably on account of defective working.
Infiltration Galleries have as usual functioned fairly efficiently during the
dry weather and poorly during the flood seasons. Some of the galleries, parti-
cularly those at Guntur and Conjeeveram and some of the suction wells, e.g.,
Vizianagaram and Bezwada, appear to need examination for the presence of
cracks.
6. Position of the Institute as regards advice on water.—During the year it
was arranged for the sake of better co-ordination, that only the general report on
the water samples should go direct to local bodies, and that specific recommenda-
tions about improvements to water-supplies should go only to the Sanitary
Engineer and to the Director of Public Health, who thus remain responsible for
the final recommendations to local bodies.
. 7. Special investigations carried out by the Senior Bacteriological Assistant of
the Public Health Section
—
(a) A systematic periodical examination of water samples from the
Tungabhadra river at Hospet together with field tests is in progress in connexion
with the water-supply scheme at Hospet Municipality.
(b) Tanjore area and Madura town were visited in connexion with outbreaks
of cholera. In both places vibrios were found in certain unprotected sources of
water that were in use by the inhabitants.
(c) The Paterson filter and chlorinating plant which has been erected for
the labour engaged on the Metur Project was inspected on completion, and the
Executive Engineer was advised that the plant was then functioning in
a c c o r d a n c e w i t h t h e m a k e r s ’ g u a r a n t e e . T h e p l a n t w i l l b e t e s t e d a g a i n d u r i n g
f l o o d s e a s o n s .
(d) Kumballconam.—This water is derived from a deep borehole and
bacteriologically is of exceptionally good quality. Unfortunately the water
contains iron bacteria and gives a large amount of a gelatinous brown scum on
exposure to air in the collecting tanks before distribution. For this reason
the water is unpopular with the inhabitants many of whom prefer to take their
supply from unprotected sources. Laboratory experiments indicated that lime
treatment prevented the formation of scum and a large scale experiment on the
spot has given results which suggest that lime treatment may effect a permanent
cure. The Local Municipal Health Officer is carrying out further tests to deter:
mine the necessary dose and optimum conditions.