METROPOLITAN WATER BOARD BILL (By Order).

Part of Private Business. – in the House of Commons am ar 18 Chwefror 1935.

Danfonwch hysbysiad imi am ddadleuon fel hyn

Photo of Mr Benjamin Gardner Mr Benjamin Gardner , West Ham Upton

I am sorry. Storage is part of our purification process. It was proved by the late Sir Alexander Houston, who died last year, by experiments on his own body, that river water, impregnated as it is sometimes with the typhoid germ, can be purified, as far as that part of the bacteria content was concerned, by storage. He discovered this fact by research. He experimented upon himself a number of times before he announced the discovery, and it was that fact which decided Parliament to allow the water supply of London to be drawn from the Thames. Therefore, if it is part of the purification, it is necessary to have it near the intake and the plant that deals with purification, so that the process may be as cheap as it is possible to make it. The need for further storage has been admitted. The Second Reading of the Bill has been passed formally, and I ask the House to send the Bill upstairs to Committee for the consideration that it ought to have. It is no use to suggest that the Metropolitan Water Board can wander about looking for sites for reservoirs. The area is strictly limited. It is strictly limited by the geological fact that is known as the London clay. There, the engineer can build and get his reservoir much more cheaply than by going somewhere else. For these reasons I ask the House to give the Bill, un-mutilated, a chance to go to Committee upstairs.