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beds shoulds be placed; but, from a sanitary pointof view, they should, if the loss
of head can be avoided, be as near the point of distribution as possible.
41. Before such a scheme could, by any possibility, be brought into opera
-tion, many months must elapse, but in the meantime immediate measures might be
taken to improve the condition of the river water. The General Commanding
the Northern Division of the Army has kindly promised to prevent, as far as
possible, the nuisances I have spoken of as arising from the cantonment. The
burial of the dead in the river-bed at Dndeshwar, and elsewhere, should be at
once prohibited, and corpses, either from the cantonment or the town, should not
be allowed to be burnt along its bed, or in any other place except below the town
on the south, where a ghát might be built and set apart for this purpose. A
cremation place for Hindus from the cantonment should, in consultation with
the municipal authorities, be decided upon. The different Mussulman burial
-grounds on the river-bank ought to be closed. All offensive trades, such as
paper-makers, tanneries, dyers, bricks and lime-kilns, &c., &c., should be at
once removed from the north of the city, and from within the walls, and be located
to the south east of the town, the point from which the wind hardly ever belows.
The people ought not to be allowed to wash either their clothes or persons above
the place where the water is drawn, and the police might patrol the river to see
that its stream is not polluted.
42. Such means are, in my opinion, imperative, if the terrible death-rate is
to be in any way reduced. To carry them out it will be necessary to extend the
municipal limits until they join the cantonment, and for a radius of, say, 2 miles
round the city. At present this tract is under the Collector, but there is no
establishment allowed for its conservancy; and the numerous offensive trades car
-ried on within its limits being under no supervision, render it a source of danger
to the cantonment and the city. When this action is taken, the Municipality
should amplify the wording of the bye-law relating to the inspection and licensing
of offensive trades, passed under the provisions of Clause 2 of Section 70 of the
District Municipal Act.
43. The water-supply is, as I have said, the first matter that should engage
the attention of the authorities, but coincidentally with it should be considered a
scheme for the abolition of the deadly khalkoowa system. The death-rate
shows, in more forcible language than I can use, the awful havoc the contamina
-tion of the subsoil with the ordure of the inhabitants is making in Ahmedabad.
It is sad to contemplate a city with such natural advantages, gradually becoming
depopulated, for no population can have such a death-rate without becoming en
-feebled and degenerated. The able and intelligent Secretary to the Municipality,
Mr. Raghoonath Janardhun Prabh, whose willing aid and great assistance in my
investigations I beg to bring prominently to the notice of Government, has sug
-gested to me that it was the filth accumulated in the khalkoowas which caused
the epidemic which depopulated the ancient capital of Guzerat—a calamity which
is ascribed in Hindu traditions to the wrath of an offended goddess; and surely
such an epidemic will some day take place in Ahmedabad unless the necessary
action is taken to prevent it.
44. There are no levels available to say whether a sewerage scheme is en
-gineeringly possible; but if, as there is every reason to believe it is, a scheme
which, whilst excluding the storm-water would ensure the nightsoil, the urine,
the ablution and household refuse-water, being immediatly conveyed through
glazed stoneware pipes to a site outside the city, and the application of the
sewage over fields on the south of the town for the purposes of agriculture,
would afford not only, in my opinion, the surest means of permanently reducing
the death-rate, but would eventually prove a financial success. The soil round
the city being composed of sand, is one of all others which is best adapted to
sewage irrigation; and there can be no doubt that, on the farm so created,
magnificent crops, &c., would grow. It must be remembered that Ahmedabad