83
nullahs and tanks that collect surface drainage, lined with masonry, in good repair,
with a coping well raised above the surface of the ground, and containing four feet
of water in the hot weather. I should fix this as the standard of water-supply to
be aimed at for villages, the number of such wells to be in the proportion of 1
for every 150 or 200 of the population. The situation in which, such a well
would be safo from pollution by percolation would vary according to the cha-
racter of the soil and sub-soil in which it might be sunk. In blacksoil or allu-
vial clay safety from percolation may be readily ensured. In porous soils or
sub-strata greater care in the selection of the site would be necessary.
Γη the smaller towns and larger villages the wells most used might be ad-
vantageously fitted with pumps. The chain pump described in para. 17 of
Colonel Hodgson's Report to the Government of the North-Western Provinces
would be most suitable for this purpose ; and if the use of pumps of this kind
could be established in some of the Municipal towns of each district, the example
might in time be more generally followed.
296. To attain this standard in tracts of country where the sub-strata are
composed of hard rock, assistance by advances would be necessary, but perhaps
in all cases, the villagers might be called upon to supply the labour. In the case
of small villages in the trap country, where a good water-supply is not readily
obtainable, the villages might be removed. The Gonds, the chief inhabitants of
these tracts, often desert their villages for a less cause. In some situations, as on
the banks of the larger rivers, a water-supply from, wells is not attainable; and here
it would be necessary to depend on the observance of conservancy rules, which in
future must be more strictly enforced in all villages wherever situated.
297. In large towns built on porous sub-strata, such as Nagpore and Jub-
bulpore, where the water in the wells becomes scanty in the hot weather, and
where the sources whence the wells may become polluted by percolation are
numerous, there can be no safety except in a water-supply brought from a dis-
tance by impervious pipes.
At Saugor it is possible that its fine lake might be rendered a safe source
of water-supply by carefully preventing the entrance of any of the surface drain-
age of the town or station, and a minute survey of the whole locality should be
made with this view.
298. The publication of rules regarding conservancy, and issuing instruc-
tions regarding the water-supply, will do but little to improve the condition of
the villages; as much good as can bo expected from such measures, has been
already attained in the greater number of the districts. To oppose effectually
the prevalence of cholera, it is necessary to place the villages of every district
under systematic intelligent supervision. For some years, at least, and especially
in those districts which are most liable to be over-run by cholera, the sanitary con-
dition and water-supply of each village should be reported on annually. The
work of annually inspecting the different villages might be entrusted to Native
Inspectors, provided they were subject to frequent European supervision; but this
additional duty could scarcely be imposed on present establishments.
299. In this report I have referred only incidentally to the epidemic that
has devastated the Provinces in the present year, and I defer giving a detailed
account of it until I have inspected the districts which it has visited with the
greatest severity. I however append Tables showing the rise and decline of the
epidemic, with the atmospheric conditions by which it was accompanied, and also
the mortality which it occasioned in the different districts, because they in a great
degree support the deductions that I have drawn from the facts of the epidemic of
the previous year, and because the figures given in these Tables afford the strongest