12
but that during last year it amounted to Rs. 37,186. The expenditure for 1875
reached Rs. 34,604, and there is a balance, I am informed by the Secretary, of
Rs. 6,551. The annual expenditure for conservancy was during 1875 Rs. 10,454.
The rate of Municipal taxation per head of population was in 1872 Rs. 1-3-10.
46. I think enough has been said to prove that Satara stands in need of
improvement in nearly all matters pertaining to its sanitary condition, which I
must say is very bad. The Collector, Mr. Moore, to whom I can never sufficiently
express my acknowledgments for all the willing and zealous aid he has, to his
own personal discomfort, afforded me so amply during my visit, is fully alive to
the necessity of taking measures to improve the sanitary condition of the town
and station. The great difficulty in the way of effecting improvement is that so
universally experienced in India,—a want of funds; but the first thing, in my opi
-nion, to be done, is to provide a much larger supply of pure water. Mr. Moore
informs me that a scheme is now before Government by which an unlimited supply
of the purest water can be obtained, by constructing a dam on the hills across
the principal source of the Urmori River at Khas, and thus making a tank, from
which the water could be brought along the summit of the gháts into the town.
The people of Satara are very anxious that this scheme may be carried out, and
are, I believe, quite willing to .submit to extra taxation in order to raise funds for
it. This water would be the greatest possible blessing to the people in a sanitary
point of view; and I trust the scheme may be sanctioned, as, in my opinion, it is
very much needed, and Government are very directly interested in its being done,
as the present supply to the troops is inadequate, impure, and unwholesome.
47. Coincidently with it, provision should be made to carry off the wastage
water. Satara possesses greater facilities for drainage than any town I have
yet seen in India, and the sub-soil ought to be absolutely dry; but instead of that,
all the water that is carried away from the public cisterns for domestic consump
-tion now soaks into the ground. All the ablution water used at the privies does
the same; and the privies will become the source of the greatest possible danger,
if measures are not speedily taken to remove the urine and Stagnant water.
This leads me to speak of the general system of conservancy adopted in Satara:
it is as bad as it possibly can be. I was, during my visit to the town, much
struck as an old Health Officer with the evidence of an utter absence of any
thing like proper inspection and superintendence in every part of the town, and
in every detail of the conservancy system. I should strongly recommend the
Municipal Commissioners to change the personnel of their establishment, and to
procure from Bombay a Hindu Sub-Inspector in the Health Department, whom, I
have no doubt, would be recommended by the Health Officer and allowed to
resign by the Municipal Commissioner; for the system of cleaning a town is not to
be learnt without training, and the art of systematic cleaning requires to be taught ;
and am certain that there is no better school in India than the Health Depart
-ment in Bombay. Until such time as the Municipality can afford to pay for a
Health Officer of their own, their Civil Surgeon might, I think, be advantageously
appointed ex-officio Health Officer, and should see, when a sufficient establishment
has been granted, that the conservancy of the town was properly carried out.
48. It may be worth while to show the Municipal Commissioner approxi
-mately the amount of filth; and by this I mean urine and fœces, which may be
assumed to be produced by the population of Satara. Experience has shown that
for any given population it is safe to calculate that 2.5 ozs. of fœces and 40 ozs. of
urine are passed per head per diem: men pass more, women and children less, but
the above quantities are safe ones to calculate the amount that should be produced
per diem. There would consequently, during each day of the year in Satara, be
—
Persons.
Fœces.
24,484 x
2.5 = 61,210 ozs.
= 3,825 lbs. fœces passed per diem.
=
1.7 tons