New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1871-03-16
THE DRAINAGE ACT.

| The act to provide for the drainage of
New Orleans has been published in the
REPUBLICAN. The preamble to the act very
correctly sets forth that efficient drainage
Of this city is Of paramount importance
to its sanitary and commercial interests
Efficient drainage means more than the
mere digging of canals and throwing up
of leveeS. 1t means channels for Carry
ing off water and making the earth dry.
This kind Of drainage is of paramount
importance to the sanitary and COM
mercial interests of our city, and any
thing short of it will not be efficient for
attaining the ends desired in this case.
Surface drainage will not answer to make
this dry and healthy place to dwell in
at all seasons of the year. Nothing short
of system of underground drainage
that will carry off the water, will do
this and reclaim the swamp lands
in the rear Of the city. The act author
ICES the Mississippi and Mexican Gulf
Ship Canal Company to excavate drainage
canals and build protection levees within
the present corporate limits Of New Or
leans and Carrollton at the rate Of some
thing like one hundred thousand dollars
per mile for canal and levee, and unless
these canals and levees will do the work
of drainage efficiently and relieve the
f.IfC az q nS rota
and reclaim the swamp lands, millions
OF dollars may be squandered in vain. 1t
is true the levee may protect the city
against the incursion Of waters from the
lake; but if the canals are only 70 be re-
ceptacles OF standing water that will ac-
cumulate in them in time Of heavy rains,
they will serve only to asgrava;e the evils
that New Orleans has labored under so
long in this respect. The canals that al
ready permeate our city are constantly
filled with waters of the dirtiest hue, and
that emit a most sickening stencil. In
stead Of draining the ground, they serve
to keep it saturated with water, thereby
creating nuisance most deleterious to
health. A system of drainage that fails
to remedy this evil will be of no service
to New Orleans. The protection levee
that the company will be enabled to build
by digging canal that is to run parallel
with it may protect the city from the in
vading waters of the lake at all times. but
if the canal IS to be a receptacle Of
standing water similar to the canals that
have already been dug, no efficient
drainage will be accomplished, and the
sanitary and commercial interests Of the
city must continue TO suffer. It is the
belief of many that nothing short of deep
underground sewerage will ever re-
deem this city from its pres
ent unhealthy condition, and reclaim
the swamp lands in its rear. A system of
underground sewerage has been estab-
lished in London that has been found
most serviceable; and the money that will
be spent here for anything short Of this,
it is believed, will be thrown away, for it
will fail to give US clean and dry city,
condition that is needed to secure health
to its people at all seasons Of the year.
Our property holders will not grumble
about the taxes that will be levied to pay
for an efficient system of drainage-a
system that will relieve the city of the
evils Of epidemics. Such a system would
not only help its sanitary and commercial
interests, but it would increase largely
the value Of property Of all classes Of
our people.