Alma record. (Alma, Mich.) 1878-1928, 1920-10-07
GOOD WATER IS
COMMUNITY NEED
Growth of Cities Very Often
Hurt or Retarded BY
Its Lack.
RIVER WATER IS POLLUTED
Present Day Standards of Living De-
mand That Ii Shall Be Pure
and Wholesome.


Probably the greatest problem that
has confronted the people of the City
of Alma and particularly the city
fathers for the past few years has
been the solution of the water supply
problem which is one that must be
solved for the present if the City ex-
poets to grow and attract people
from other cities that are used to
the present standard of living else
where.
There is no question but that the
water supply of cities is one of the
most difficult and one of the earliest
problems that every growing COM
munity has to meet. 1t has always
been so and always will because it
is not a proplem that will stay
solved, the conditions Of supply and
demand always making some change
necessary.
Many cities have stopped growing
because Of no satisfactory water
supply, and some of them owe their
slow growth more to poor water
supply than any other condition.
The old argument that John Smith
has drank Pine river water for the
past forty years and is not dead yet,
does not hold good any longer, pc
cause if John Smith wanted to do
that, he was surely welcome but the
standards of today require something
better and the people expect to get
it and pay for it.
Standards of living are getting
more exact. New standards are
coming up every year. Things that
satisfied ten years ago do not salts
fy any longer.
IL was estimated few years ago
that were all the polluted water
supplies of the country efficiently
purified it would save at least 5000
lives every year from typhoid fever
alone. Many intestinal diseases are
trsceabie direct TO the water supply.
Water supply from a river gradual
ly grows worse as the drainage dis
tr,ct is built up and occupied and the
drains and bitches are opened UP. as
the ground and be purified by the
suns rays, now comes direct into the
river and is carried down. This of
changes with the advance of civiliz-
change with the advance of civiiiz-
alton and ia 10 be welcomed and met
at such price as we have to pay. The
price is returned many times over.
OF all the necessities of life, we
can least Of all do without or sus-
pend the water supply.
II there is a street car strike and
the cars stop, we cali in the jitney
and get along. II the gas fails we
fire up the old stove or get kero-
sene stove. II the electricity fails we
get out the old lamp and suffer the
Inconvenience but get along just the |
same.
Hat 4 the water supply should |
stop, think not only of the great in
convenience but Of the great damage
that might result in all directions.
The consumer in a present day city |
gives little thought to the intricate
nature Of the system that enables |
hin TO draw a glass of drinking
water from the faucet or put on the |
hose 70 sprinkle his lawn or garden.
He does not know that the faucet is
placed thereof for his convenience
and that the water is under pressure
and that il fulfils it's general pur-
pose well.
he knows that the water comes
from a pipe in the street and is
pumped from the water works. Often
he has no idea where the water comes
from or whether there Is an unlimit-
ed supply or not.
He may not know nor care wheth-
er the supply is polluted or not and
could hardly guess whether the sup
ply comes through a pipe as long
as the arm or as big as a barrel and
IT matters not so long as he is able
to draw it from the faucet.
And so IL goes through the entire
system. the average consumers in
terest is usually small and his faith
quite unconsciously placed in the en-
gineer or perhaps he does not know
that there is such a person but he
has vague idea that somebody is
guiding the business right and pro-
viding him with sufficient water for
his own individual use.
This is not entirely true with all
the people, as there are many who
are interested sufficiently to take an
active part in the publicity and CO.
operation necessary to help make
community worth living in and help I
ing solve the problems that come up {
and require good intelligent citizen
interest to help put them over.
There is wide variety Of prob !
lens in providing suitable supply !
Of water. The unending task OF main
tenance and providing for the new :
extensions necessary for q growing {
city and also the matter Of providing J
fire protection each Of which offers 7
Us own difficulties with public ;
service Of this kind. 7
a large part of the cost OF pro- I
v'd,I,g and furnishing water 20 the
cannot-be seen and is not s