10
38. There are besides 17 public wells which whether filled by rain or
from springs, ought to be immediately closed as they must be simply cesspits.
39. A statement showing the income and expenditure of the Cantonment
Fund is appended to this report. There is annually, I am informed, a large
deficit, and the amount collected last year Rs. 24,768, including the Government
contribution of nearly Rs. 8,000 is manifestly insufficient when it is considered
that it has to be devoted to the wants of the whole Cantonment, and that not
much more than one-third or a sum certainly under Rs. 10,000 is spent on the
bazar alone.
40. Such is a brief description of the sanitary condition of the Sudder
Bazar of Poona, and for years past the Cantonment Committee have been repre-
senting the necessity of having a larger sum of money placed at their disposal
so as to enable them to carry out the improvements which are so imperatively
demanded. The Officer at present in Command of the Division and President
of the Cantonment Committee has evinced the most earnest interest on the
subject, but has been prevented from taking action by not having had any money
at his disposal to carry out what are absolutely necessary and essential sanitary
improvements.
41. The whole Cantonment of Poona was laid out without any proper
attention or in complete ignorance of sanitary requirements. How else would
it have been possible to have chosen a site to leeward of a filthy native town
for the location of European troops and for the residences of the Head Quarter
Staff of the Army, of the Divisional Staff, of the European Officers in the
garrison, of the large number of European residents at the Head Quarters of
one of the principal Collectorates in the Presidency. However, we have to deal
with things as they are, and my clear duty is to state what improvements are in
my opinion most urgently required and how they can best be carried out.
42. Having the means of enjoying the benefits of a pure water supply,
though I consider the present method of distribution requires some alterations,
the greatest sanitary improvement needed in the Sudder Bazar of Poona is in
my opinion undoubtedly sewerage. Sewerage distinct from drainage and as
there is much misapprehension as to the proper meaning of these terms, I think
it well to state that drainage means the provision of channels for the sole con-
veyance of water either falling on to the surface or percolating through the
subsoil, while sewerage means the construction of channels for the removal of
water fouled in domestic use, and of urine of men and beasts as well as of night-soil
which may or may not, according to circumstances, be admitted into them.
Sewers constructed on scientific principles next to a pure water supply conduce
most largely to the health and comfort of civilized communities, but if built in
ignorance of sanitary requirements become certain and sure means of generating
filth poisons, and of thus disseminating putrid fevers which too frequently
terminate fatally. A. cardinal point in good sanitary engineering is to separate
drainage from sewerage. By this means the channels for the conveyance of
sewage can be made much smaller, and therefore far less costly than in the old
days when huge channels (which in India would only be in full operation for
four months in the year) were constructed for the removal of sewage plus rainfall.
At the present time in towns in England glazed stoneware pipes of different
sizes up to 15 inches in diameter are used for the conveyance of sewage.
If the amount of sewage is too large to be conveyed by a 15-inch pipe, egg-
shaped brick sewers laid in Portland Cement form the intercepting and main
sewers.
43. The first point in a sewerage scheme is to determine the site of the
outfall. In the case of the Sudder Bazar the valley line is to the north-west.
The ultimate destination of drainage should be to running streams. Sewage on