HISTORY
OF THE
DRAIN AGE AND SEWERAGE
OF
BOMBAY.
HARRY ARBUTHNOT ACWORTH, C.I.E.
ARTHUR PRORSTHAIN Oriental Bookseller 41 Gt. Russell Street LONDON. W.C. I
HISTORY
OF THE
DRAINAGE AND SEWERAGE
OF BOMBAY.
W RITTEN AT THE REQUEST OF THE
BOMBAY MUNICIPAL CORPORATION.
BY
HARRY ARBUTHNOT ACWORTII, C.I.E.,
Indian Civil Service (retired),
Municipal Commiseioner for the City of Bombay, 1890-1896.
LONDON:
PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED,
STA14IFORD STREET AND CHARING CROSS.
1896.
LONDON:
PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED, bTAMFU1ID STREET AND CHARING CROSS.
701575
HISTORY
OF THE
DRAINAGE AND SEWERAGE OF BOMBAY.
........04,
A GLANCE at the map which forms the frontispiece of this pamphlet will show that the greater part of the area of what is now the city of Bombay was two centuries ago covered by the sea. Yet Bombay was even then a town of some importance, though unhealthy. Its outward configuration must, however, have much resembled what is called in the Bermudas a " cay." On the east and on the west a broken succession of short ridges of basaltic rock, more or less parallel to each other in their superficial
•	outline, but so islanded as to admit the sea at numerous points, terminated respectively at Colaba and at Malabar Points, and were linked together at some distance within their final disappearance seaward by a crescent-shaped bank of sand and shale, clothed with a deep belt of cocoanut palms which still forms the chief beauty of Girgaum, Queen's Road, and Dhobi Talao. From Chow-patti and Dhobi Talao northward to Mahim the whole island was below sea-level, and covered by the sea. Khetwadi, Khara Talao, parts of Market and Mandvi, Zmarkhari, Kamatipura, Byculla (as now defined), parts of Tardeo, all the Flats, and much of Chinchpokli and Parel, were then a lagoon, or marine lake. When, in
B 2
Preliminary.
4	THE DRAINAGE AND SEWERAGE OF BOMBAY.
The old main drain.
process of time, embankments were erected, the principal of which, though not the only one, was the Hornby Vellard, the sea was excluded, and an unbroken plain was substituted for a sheet of water. Yet it must be borne in mind that the level of that plain was not thereby raised ; it still lay below the mean level of the sea outside it, and gravitation consequently from the former into the latter was not possible. This original natural characteristic of the configuration of the island must not be lost sight of. Great as the changes are which have been wrought upon its surface, and extensive as have been the processes of filling in and raising, it is still true that a large part of the interior is below mean sea-level, some of it even below spring-tide low-water mark, and nearly the whole of it too slightly elevated to admit of gravitation into the sea at a distant point of outfall. Of all the factors connected with the drainage of the city, I take it that this is the most important. It has on the one hand enormously increased the difficulty and expense of drainage ; on the other, by the almost intolerable nuisances caused by the ancient main drain and its surroundings (which are directly attributable to it), it forced upon the city much sooner than might have been expected an energetic search for a remedy.
2. I do not know when the old main drain was constructed, but a minute by the Board of Conservancy, No. 950 of 31st December, 1856, states (para. 13) that it was " devised and carried out long before the municipal interests were entrusted to the Board of Conservancy, a I ody created by Act XI. of 1845." It was originally, as I gather, open throughout its whole length, but it was arched over from the Esplanade to Copper Smith Row between the years 1824 to 1836. Shortly after 1845 the arching was continued to Paidhoni, and gradually between
THE DRAINAGE AND SEWERAGE OF BOMBAY.
1845 and 1856, to a hundred feet beyond Bellasis Road (Board of Conservancy, minute 950 of 1856, P. 25). In their report of i st December, 1860, Messrs. Wilcox and Tracey (surveyor and assistant-surveyor to the Bench) give a history of the main drain which is worth quoting :—
It was originally an open watercourse or nullah, along which, before the growth of the town, or the construction of the V ellard, the storm water falling on the inland watersheds of the boundary ridges, found its way into the sea by the large gap at the breach, through which, and by another gap at Worlee, the low central area was submerged at every tide. The construction of the Vellard . . . of course necessitated another outfall for the heavy rain. Worlee, where another and a smaller breach was also being closed, afforded the outfall required, and some kind of sluice appears to have been constructed in that central situation, and connected with the town watershed by an open channel or ditch.
" This arrangement, which lengthened the discharging channel by about three miles, must, even as regards storm waters, have been most inefficient. The long canal, with practically no fall at all, must have acted as a capacious reservoir rather than as a drain, and would store the water until, by the slow and intermittent action of the remote sluices, the season's rain disappeared.
" But this arrangement, not particularly objectionable when applied to pure water only, was obviously not admissible when the town drainage had to be provided for ; and by degrees as the urban area increased, and with it the quantity of sewage passing along this open channel, the necessity for an outfall nearer to the town, and a more constant delivery of the sewage into the sea, became abundantly manifest.
" Accordingly, about the year 1842, the sluices at
THE DRAINAGE AND SEWERAGE OF BOMBAY.
Love Grove were constructed and connected with the upper part of the old channel by a new cut, the junction of the two forming the present bend in the main drain . . . Between 1833 and 1857 the main drain and its two large collateral sewers were arched over, lined with masonry, and their courses rendered more direct. The work, however, was done on no general system, but whenever funds were available."
As buildings spread it may be presumed that subsidiary drains connecting with the main drain were made, and in 1856 there were 8201 yards of such drains, besides 1268 yards of drains communicating with an outfall into the harbour, and 2634 yards of drains towards Back Bay. Whether the last two figures include the lengths of so-called main drains discharging towards the harbour and Back Bay, as well as the smaller ones communicating with them, I am not in a position to say.
3. The old main drain, with its open channel across the Flats to Love Grove, was of course meant in theory to discharge into the sea, but as the bottom of it was at the level of low-water spring tides, the outlet was hardly ever free, while its section (20 feet x 10) being very large and its fall slight, the flow of sewage was exceedingly sluggish. The consequence of all this was that vast quantities of the sewage, and in the monsoon the sewage and storm water, never reached the sea at all, but remained ponded up in. the drain itself, and when it was overfull, flowed on to the Flats. The resulting nuisance engaged the attention of the Board of Conservancy at an early date, and in 1853 a plan for alleviating it was devised by Mr. Conybeare, the " Superintendent of Repairs " (whose name is remembered in connection with Vaal), and tried in that and the following year. This plan did not pretend to alter the condition of things
THE DRAINAGE AND SEWERAGE OF BOMBAY.	7.
during the monsoon, but during the fair season the sewage was " run into a pit sunk near Bellasis Road," and thence lifted, deodorised and applied to the irrigation of ground near the Flats. So far from making things better this device seems to have intensified the nuisance, and a proposal to get rid of it by arching over the remaining portion of the drain was reverted to. This was dealing not with the disease but with the symptom, and though the project was strongly pressed.(and at one time actually sanctioned by the Bench of Justices), it was never adopted. Mr. Aher, who succeeded Mr. Conybeare as Superintendent of Repairs, then proposed, as a temporary expedient, that the ingress of the sea into the main drain should be stopped by a dam across the outlet channel, that the liquid sewage should be pumped up and discharged into the sea, and the solid matter in the drain removed by hand and buried on each side of it. This was tried, but was not a success. Mr. Aher, however, also reported that to get rid permanently of the nuisance a new system of sewerage must be adopted, and till then the sewage must be removed from time to time from " that great cesspool the main drain," the only name which he considered it deserved having regard to the want of a proper outlet. In various communications about this time between the Bench of Justices and the Government, the ways and means for sewering the town anew were discussed. The work was roughly estimated to cost thirty lakhs, and it was proposed and agreed that the Bench and Government should each pay half. A proper survey, however, had not been undertaken, and on Government applying to the Government of India for sanction to the cost of it from Imperial funds they were met by the reply that the money could not at that time possibly be spared. This was in A ugust, 1858, and members who recollect that the
8	THE DRAINAGE AND SEWERAGE OF BOMBAY.
Mr. Tracey's sewerage scheme.
Mutiny had broken out at Meerut in the previous year, will enter into the reasons of this reply.
Upon this the Bench intimated that they would be willing to bear the expenses of the preliminary survey, but that at present they had no available funds. They expected, however, to be placed in possession of them as soon as the Municipal Tax Act, then before the Legislative Council, had passed into law. It had been agreed that the expense of the new sewerage works should be jointly borne by Government and the Bench, but that the carrying out of the works should be left to Government. The pending introduction of Vehar water rendered progress urgent.
4. The Bench now for some time concentrated its attention upon the immediate nuisance from the main drain, and two schemes for cleaning and flushing it, prepared by Dr. Buist and Mr. Wilkes, were reported on by Mr. James Berkeley, chief engineer to the G.I.P. Railway, hut they were not acted on. Government in the meantime had the necessary surveys carried on by Mr. Fairbairn.
5. The first general scheme for the drainage of the city as a whole was that submitted by Messrs. Wilcox and Tracey in December, 1860. It was, I believe, practically the work of Mr. Tracey, who was Mr. Wilcox's assistant, and is spoken of as Mr. Tracey's scheme. Major Tulloch's report of 1872 takes up the history of the drainage and sewerage of Bombay at this point, and I shall be compelled to repeat a great deal that he has said.
6. Though I have rapidly glanced at the drainage operations of earlier years, I apprehend that the true drainage history of the city begins where Major Tulloch placed it, with Messrs. Wilcox and Tracey's report of 1st December, 1860. The drainage and sewerage of the
THE DRAINAGE AND SEWERAGE OF BOMBAY.	9
city were then for the first time treated, not haphazard and as occasion arose here and there, but as a co-ordinate and interdependent whole, on a comprehensive basis. Up to that time the questions that had arisen had been merely questions of building a new length of drain to serve a new street here, or of flushing or patching a section of the main drain there.
Mr. Tracey's report, which is very interesting and possesses considerable literary merit, for the first time deals with the drainage of the city comprehensively and as a whole. He objected to the application of sewage to land, and after discussing the various sea outfalls, preferred the harbour. He objected to the west of the island as being the windward side, and also because he foresaw a risk of sewage deposit on the foreshore, and of damage to the outfall works during the monsoon ; and to Back Bay, because a sewage discharge into such a " landlocked shallow bay," would convert it into a " huge cesspool." He proposed, therefore, to discharge his sewage at two points in the harbour, Wari Bunder and Carnac Bunder. At Wan i Bunder all his low-level sewer system was to discharge, and part of his gravitating system ; at Carnac Bunder the rest of his gravitating system. His low-level system included, speaking generally, that part of the city lying west of Market and Umarkhari as far as Girgaum and Kamatipura ; his gravitating system embraced Umarkhari, Tarwari and Naoroji Hill, discharging at Wan i Bunder ; and Market, Mandvi and Sonapur discharging at Carnac Bunder. The Fort was to be drained by a system of its own, discharging into the harbour near the castle ; and Malabar Hill, if sewered, which he did not think necessary, was also to be isolated by a system discharging near the Point. Mr. Tracey proposed to place the " soles " of his
10	THE DRAINAGE AND SEWERAGE OF BOMBAY.
Mr. ilawlin-son's report anti Dr. Leith's committee.
gravitating sewers at the outfalls at two feet below 
high-water mark. The low-level sewers were to discharge into tanks, whence the sewage was to be pumped up into the harbour at the ebb tide. His gravitating sewers were to carry both sewage and storm water, but from his low-level sewers storm water was to be rigorously excluded, with the object plainly of reducing the size and cost of his receiving tanks and pumping machinery. The whole scheme was to cost Rs. 33,20,000, but the estimate was not a close one.
7. Mr. Tracey's report with other documents was ultimately sent to the Secretary of State for the opinion of some eminent engineer at home, and Mr. Robert Rawlinson reported on it in 1863. In the meantime Government appointed a committee with Dr. Leith for president and Mr. Hewlett for secretary, to consider the subject in Bombay, with reference both to the whole scheme at large, and particularly to that part of it which embraced the drainage and outfall of the Fort. A committee for the removal of the ramparts was then sitting, and reclamations were being carried out and projected on a large scale, and under these circumstances Government thought that the question of the Fort drainage should be considered anew. Dr. Leith's committee, reporting in June, 1861, recorded a general approval of Mr. Tracey's scheme, but, with some recommendations as to the extension of it to other parts of the island, to which it is not necessary to refer in detail, expressed the somewhat strange opinion that all the sewage ought to be deodorised before discharge into the sea, " should it otherwise be found to be a local nuisance." Mr. Rawlin-son reported in April, 1863, and his report must have reached the Bombay Government some time in June. He highly complimented 111e,ssrs. Wilcox and Tracey, and
THE DRAINAGE AND SEWERAGE OF BOMBAY.	11
expressed his opinion that, with some minor alterations, their scheme was a good one. It was accordingly formally sanctioned by Government in September, 1863, Mr. Tracey was appointed engineer to carry it out, and Captain Trevor consulting engineer. I must not forget to mention here that Government had informed the Municipal Commissioners some time before that they found themselves unable to assist the latter in the cost of carrying out this or any other drainage project.
8. A drainage department was now organised under Mr. Tracey, but this had hardly been done when the city was deprived by his death of the services of that able officer. Mr. -Wilcox, who succeeded him as engineer, also died soon afterwards. Contract drawings were got out for the Fort section of drainage, and the works commenced late in 1864, and after slowly progressing till May, 1865, were put a stop to by the failure of the contractors. " Contract drawings were also got out for one of the gravitating outfalls, and here again the contractors failed just after the work was commenced. Meantime, the propriety of placing sewage outfalls for the whole city so near to the populous area had been vigorously contested in the press, the harbour foreshore became an increasing nuisance, and a discussion arose which culminated in the report of a commission appointed by Government to report on the drainage of the Flats. Of this commission Mr. T. Ormiston was a member as well as Colonel De Lisle. The two most important questions which the commission had to discuss were the point of outfall, and whether sewage and storm-water should be separated or discharged together. Mr. Ormiston, apparently differing from the rest of the commission, was of opinion that Colaba was the best point of discharge, unless difficulties not immediately apparent were to
Work begun on Mr. Tracey's scheme. Further committees. Disputes as to outfall.
12(	THE DRAINAGE AND SEWERAGE OF BOMBAY.
Mr. Russel Ai tkeu's scheme.
arise ; and Government, agreeing with him, directed a further inquiry into this point, and at the same time recorded an opinion strongly adverse to the Wari Bunder outfall. Mr. Ormiston and Colonel Be Lisle were agreed that storm waters and sewage ought to be separated, and Government " generally concurred " with this view. Another memorandum from Mr. Ormiston followed, and then a preliminary report on the outfall question by Mr. Russel Aitken, Engineer to the Municipality. Another commission was now appointed by Government, and the upshot of their inquiries was a recommendation to run the sewage of the city into a reservoir opposite the lighthouse (this means the old lighthouse, not the Prongs) at Colaba, and thence to pump it into the sea on the ebb. This was in September, 1866. The proposal was approved by Government.
9. We now come to the second of the general schemes for the drainage of the city, that of Mr. Russel ' Aitken. It was complex and very expensive. He objected, as impracticable, to any attempt to separate storm water from sewage. Placing his outfall at the old lighthouse at Colaba, he proposed that during the dry season all the sewage of the city should gravitate to that point and there discharge into a reservoir four acres in area and twelve feet deep, from which it was to be lifted on the ebb by pumping engines. In the monsoon all the high parts of the town, i.e., Mazagon, the district about Dongri Koli Street, the Fort, the Esplanade, Sonapur and Chowpatti, were to be cut off from the main sewer and to discharge into the harbour and Back Bay. The engines at Colaba were thus to pump in the monsoon the sewage and drainage of the low districts about Bhooleshwar, Kamatipura and Byculla, northward as far as the old race course, and westward as far as Tardeo. The main sewer,
THE DRAINAGE AND SEWERAGE OF BOMBAY.	13
however, as planned, would take no more than T1-2-th of an inch of rainfall in addition to the sewage it was to carry during the monsoon, and " overflows " were therefore provided for, which, when more than 2 inches per diem fell, would carry the mixed sewage and drainage on to the Flats—an arrangement sufficient, in my opinion, to condemn the whole project if there had been no other objection to it. Mr. Aitken proposed, in order to raise his main sewer—which was to be 10 feet in diameter and was to run below an entirely new road, 60 feet wide, cut for the purpose through the heart of the town, from Null Bazar to the Money School (an excellent idea in itself)—to raise by filling in with earth 3 feet deep the low-lying district, admeasuring 150 acres, enclosed by Bellasis, Duncan, Girgaum Back and Breach Candy Roads. The Flats were to be drained by an open cutting 60 to 100 feet wide, extending from Bellasis Road to Worlee, and discharging through a number of sluice-gates at that point. The whole cost of the scheme was estimated at 110 lakhs of rupees, and the working expenses at Rs. 2,50,000 per annum.
10. Mr. Aitken's report was forwarded in the latter part of 1867 to Mr. Robert Rawlinson, C.B., who went carefully into the subject. Mr. Rawlinson was of opinion that sewage discharged at Colaba would return into the harbour, and advised that it should be carried to the north and applied to land remote from the inhabited area of the city. The natural fall of the island towards the Flats indicated, in his judgment, that direction as the true one for the conveyance of sewage, but he shared the almost universal opinion that a marine outfall on the west was not permissible. " The western coast is, in fact, utterly unsuited to the purpose of an outfall." The float experiments made by Mr. Jaganath Sadashiv " conclusively
14	THE DRAINAGE AND SEWERAGE OF BOMBAY.
showed " that an eastern outfall would contaminate the harbour. What then was to be done but apply the sewage to land, inasmuch as apparently insurmountable objections were capable of being urged against any sea outfall whatever ? It may be mentioned that Captain Tulloch, with whose report I shall have next to deal, fully concurred with Mr. Rawlinson as to the impossibility of a sea outfall either on the west or east of the island ; on the west because the prevailing wind blew from that quarter, on the east because Mr. Jaganath's float experiments were fatal to the proposition. I doubt whether either of these very eminent engineers would have dealt with the question of sewage irrigation on land with such a clear conviction of its merits if their imaginations had not been thus hermetically sealed to the sanitary possibility of a sea outfall. But both of them, as by instinct, showed a true appreciation of the leading features of the situation, which indicated inevitably the leading of the sewage to the north-west. This is the natural fall of the land. " In nine cases out of ten," says Mr. Rawlinson, " it is wrong to sewer a town in the contrary direction to the natural fall." " It is clear, if the hints given us by nature are considered, that the sewage of the town, instead of being taken to the south, should . . . be allowed to flow naturally to the north." These views are developed in the later report by Captain Tulloch. I need scarcely say that they have been acted on in practice, and in spite of all opinion to the contrary, much of it most weighty, the indications of nature have been followed, and we have carried and do carry our sewage in the direction of the " natural fall " of the land, though we do not apply it to land, but—to the horror perhaps of Mr. Rawlinson and. Captain Tulloch of 1868, yet I am sure with the concurrence of Sir Robert Rawlinson and Major Tulloch of
THE DRAINAGE AND SEWERAGE OF BOMBAY.	15
1896—we discharge it into the sea to the west of the island. The eastern outfall had been condemned on the strength of some float experiments which I have already referred to, and which seemed to lead to the conclusion that the sea current at ebb tide set into the harbour and at flood tide out of it. I cannot but share the surprise expressed in 1890 by Mr. Baldwin Latham (pp. 34 and 35 of his Report) that conclusions so opposed to the order of nature should have been accepted without suspicion. As Mr. Latham says : " Who can believe that Bombay harbour empties itself on flood tide and refills on ebb tide ? To my mind the whole thing is a mistake," and he attributes the error to something unusual in the drawing of the chart of the float experiments which deceived observers. The inquiries on the subject of a sewage outfall which have been continued up to quite recently have, I think, led to a pretty general belief that an outfall at the Prongs would be attended with no risk of pollution to the harbour, but the immense cost has been prohibitive ; and strongly as Mr. Latham felt that this was the point where it should have been placed, he has conceded that the existing outfall at Love Grove is certainly the next best to be found. As I have said, both Mr. Rawlinson and Captain Tulloch were of opinion that the natural fall of the land decidedly indicated a northwest course for the sewage, and the fact of this natural fall has been too strong for all theoretical opinions. It is difficult to doubt that if by the force of circumstances the Love Grove outfall had not been pitched upon, following the course of the " old nullah " which originally drained the town (or very nearly following it), the outfall scientifically approved and decided on would have been on the east, probably near the old lighthouse at Colaba, till it was driven to the Prongs by general clamour.
16	THE DRAINAGE AND SEWERAGE OF BOMBAY.
Captain	11. A year after the receipt of Mr. Rawlinson's report Tulloeh sent
to Bombay. Captain Tulloch, R.E. (now Major Tulloch, chief engineer-Progress of
Fort drain- ing inspector to the Local Government Board in England), age. Love
Grove pump. was ordered to proceed to Bombay, and the Municipality iug station.
referred the drainagequestion to him for opinion. Before, however, entering upon Captain Tulloch's important recommendations, and the storm of controversy that raged around them, I must deal with the actual progress which was made by Mr. Russel Aitken, and the Municipal Commissioner, Mr. Crawford, while the main question was still pending. As mentioned above (para. 8) the drainage of the Fort had been sanctioned and the work commenced in 1864. In his report for 1867 Mr. Aitken stated that a want of bricks had hampered him in the progress of the work ; but that the outlet into the harbour had been completed, and also the main line of sewer through Elphinstone Circle to the Esplanade, the branch in Bazar Gate Street, and the branch sewers round Elphinstone Circle and in Hornby Row. The W.C. system had been introduced in Elphin stone Circle and had given satisfaction. The total lengths of sewer constructed in the Fort were of brick, 6472 lineal feet, and of earthen pipes, 6400 feet. The cost is not given. A main sewer with an outfall into Back Bay at Sonapur had been completed at a cost of Rs. 1,45,000, to be paid by Government. More important still was the completion of a low-level sewer from Bellasis Road to Love Grove, which during the fair season intercepted all the sewage carried from the main drain and conveyed it to a pumping station at the latter point. Here the sewage was lifted 27 feet by two of Gwynne's centrifugal pumps, and a chain pump specially
. constructed by Messrs. Morland and Co. of London, and delivered through a high-level outlet at low-water mark. The amount of sewage requiring to be lifted is stated by
THE DRAINAGE AND SEWERAGE OF BOMBAY.	17
Mr. Aitken as varying from 150,000 gallons an hour during the night to 222,000 gallons an hour during the day. The chain pump was kept constantly at work, and when the sewage rose above a certain level a centrifugal pump was set to work to aid it. The chain pump was found the more satisfactory of the two. I have no data enabling me to state what the cost was of the low-level sewer and pumping station.
12. In November, 1868, was issued Captain Tulloch's Captain
Tulloch's first
first report on "A Project for the Drainage of Bombay." report.
He first dealt with the question of direction of drainage, which he was firmly of opinion should be, whether the sewage was applied to land or discharged into the sea, towards the west of the city, and not towards the harbour or Colaba. His principal reasons were that the natural slope of the island was towards the west, and that any discharge on the east would be likely to foul the harbour. If utilisation on land was disapproved it might be carried back from Love Grove in an iron main and discharged at Colaba, and this would be cheaper than Mr. Aitken's proposals, though Captain Tulloch was utterly opposed to a Colaba outfall. (Reply to Mr. Aitken, p. 32.) For dealing with storm water he proposed three sluices at Love Grove, Worli, and Dharavi respectively, each 120 feet long, but deprecated any idea of raising the Flats, which were the natural reservoir of the city for the collection of storm waters in times of heavy rainfall when the sluices were tide-locked. He thought also that the pumping engines he proposed to erect at Love Grove to lift the sewage might also help to pump storm waters in extraordinary emergencies of rare occurrence. The Flats he proposed to convert into a people's park, an idea suggested to him by Mr. Crawford, and which has found favour with successive Municipal Commissioners.
c
18	THE DRAINAGE AND SEWERAGE OF BOMBAY.
He assumed, however, that as the land already belonged to Government it would cost nothing to purchase, a hypothesis which later experience shows to be exceedingly improbable. A salient feature of Captain Tulloch's scheme was the complete separation of sewage and storm water, and the utilisation for the disposal of the latter of the old drains of the city, including the main drain. For the sewage he proposed one main sewer from the Fort to the Flats, 3 feet 9 inches by 2 feet 6 inches at its commencement, and 8 feet 6 inches by 5 feet 8 inches at its termination, and of the ovoid form. Two brick branch sewers were to join it, one from Mazagon to Mumbadevi, the other from Parell Road, near " Sindal-para," to the Flats, and these were each to be in size 3 feet 9 inches by 2 feet 6 inches. They were to be fed by pipe drains in the streets of 9 inches or 12 inches, which again were to be connected with 6-inch pipes under the gullies communicating with the " waste-water pipes " from the houses. These were to be provided with " perforated sinks " and syphons. When a water supply equal to 30 gallons per head was available water-closets were recommended. With regard to the disposal of the sewage Captain Tulloch was in favour of its being applied to land as Mr. Rawlin son had advised. It was to be lifted by pumping-engines at Love Grove, of which he proposed three of 150 horse-power each, and carried by a 4-foot cast iron main to the land. The cost of the whole project was estimated to be Rs. 75,00,000. With the exception that no steps have ever been taken in the direction of sewage irrigation on land on any large scale, it is remarkable to observe how closely the subsequent drainage policy of the city has followed the lines recommended by Captain Tulloch, who saw, as clearly as he did on the equally important question of water supply,
THE. DRAINAGE AND SEWERAGE OF BOMBAY.	19
both what the needs of the city were, and what were the best methods of supplying them. It is noticeable, however, that Captain Tulloch was opposed to a marine outfall on the west (vide his memo. on Mr. Sowerby's scheme), but the force of his own reasoning led him inevitably to that point.
13. It may easily be supposed that proposals so radically opposed to those which had been made by the Engineer of the Municipality were not allowed to pass by the latter officer without comment. I do not feel, however, that it would now be of interest to enter into the details of this controversy. Captain Tulloch's scheme was forwarded on to the Government with strong expressions of approval by the Commissioner, Mr. Crawford, who contrasted it with that of Mr. Aitken in parallel columns, greatly to the disparagement of the latter, and ended by pronouncing " Mr. Aitken's incomplete scheme financially impossible," forgetting apparently that he had strongly recommended this very scheme a year or two before, when he considered that the cost was a matter of little importance. The truth is that every new engineer had the advantage of the mistakes of his predecessors, and in this way erroneous views were gradually worked out and eliminated, as the body struggles to expel matters hostile to its health. I am certainly of opinion that the cost of Mr. Aitken's scheme should have been felt to be prohibitive from the first, but at-the time it was submitted economy was not much in favour, and there were also sanitary objections to it to which I have already alluded ; but though these are clear enough to us now, it does not follow that they were bound to be generally obvious thirty years ago.
14. Before passing on to the next landmark in the Mr. Sowerby's
,
history of our drainage—the deliberations of Mr. (now scheme
Sir Andrew) Scoble's commission—I must make a short
c 2
Mr. Scoble's commission, 1869.
20	THE DRAINAGE AND SEWERAGE OF BOMBAY.
reference to one other general scheme, that of Mr. Sowerby, which was submitted about this time. His idea was to construct a canal from Back Bay to Mahim, with two or three branches at suitable points. It was to be from 150 feet to 200 feet wide, and deep enough for laden barges, the materials removed in the excavation being used to reclaim the low-lying lands on each side. This canal was to be a catch-water drain for surface rain water. Alongside it were to be two sewers of sufficient capacity, as low as possible, so as to get a natural outfall to the north, and to get a good head of water from the canal for flushing. As an alternative there were to be no intercepting sewers alongside the canal, but the main drains were all to run at right angles to it, emptying into the harbour on one side and the open sea on the other. This wonderful scheme was sent to Captain Tulloch for report, and condemned. Captain Tulloch pointed out, among other things, that its main feature, the canal, was inconsistent with itself. If it was to be of any use as a receptacle for storm waters it must be placed at too low a level for flushing the sewers; if placed high enough to flush the sewers efficiently it would not be low enough for storm waters to drain into it. Mr. Sowerby replied to Captain Tulloch in a long, acrimonious, but quite inconclusive memorandum, to which the latter did not think it worth while to make any rejoinder, and nothing more, I believe, was heard of the scheme.
15. Government now once more intervened, and appointed a commission composed of the following gentlemen to consider and report on the drainage and water supply of Bombay :—
Mr. A. R. Scoble	Surgeon W. G. Hunter, M.D.
Col. W. Kendall, R.E.	Surgeon J. D. Lyon, Secretary. Lt.-Col. J. G. Trevor, R.E.
THE DRAINAGE AND SEWERAGE OF BOMBAY.	21
With the subject of water supply I have here nothing to do, but I may be allowed to observe in passing, as a testimony to Mr. Aitken's real ability as an engineer, that of the four schemes for water supply which he recom-mended—Shewla, Kennery, Tulsi, and Pawai—two have actually been adopted, and that though the Shewla project was ultimately adjudged to be, and I have no doubt was, inferior to Captain Tulloch's Tansa project, yet one of the main reasons for rejecting it, viz., that the water was to be brought to Bombay in a steel main, has given way to later experience. The Tansa duct for half its length consists of metal (cast-iron) pipes laid above ground, and the present trend of engineering opinion is, I believe, in favour of steel for large water mains. Steel mains were, as will be remembered, recommended by Mr. Tomlinson for Pawai, and recommended on very strong grounds.
Mr. Scoble's commission was appointed to " ascertain if the details of Captain Tulloch's drainage scheme had been correctly worked out, and whether it possessed any sanitary or engineering defects, either as regards the principle adopted, or in the mode of applying that principle ; also, whether, from the data before the commission, they considered that the project could be executed at the cost at which it had been estimated."
The views of the commission may be thus summarised.
(a.) They concurred with Captain Tulloch in desiring to effect a complete separation of sewage from storm water, but could not agree with him that the existing underground drains should be utilised to carry the rain water to Love Grove where it would be pumped into the sea. As the leading feature of Captain .Tulloch's project was to pump not only the storm water but sewage into the sea, it was in that respect objectionable on engineering grounds.
22	THE DRAINAGE AND SEWERAGE OF BOMBAY.
(b.) They considered Captain Tulloch's project objection-, able on sanitary grounds, inasmuch as it proposed to carry off all the night-soil by means of sewers.
(c.) They hesitated to recommend so gigantic an experiment as would be involved in adopting Captain Tulloch's scheme of sewage utilisation, but thought that the results of large experiments about to be made in the same direction in Calcutta had better be awaited.
Having thus disposed of Captain Tulloch they proceeded to make recommendations on their own account. They thought that the attention of the Municipality should be specially directed to constructing sewers having their outlets in the harbour, for draining by gravitation as much of the island as the levels admitted of ; and to improving the present Ilalalcore service. They recommended the completion of the Fort drainage as soon as possible ; the house connections to be contrived so as to exclude noxious gases from the buildings. They advised the enlargement of the night-soil reservoirs at Carnac Bunder, and the relaying of the pipe so that access might be easy in case of stoppage.
They concluded by saying that not one of the projects submitted to them fulfilled those conditions of certainty and economy which would justify them in recommending it for adoption. They were unable to affirm that any of the works proposed was of indisputable necessity for the health of the town, and they did not think that a few years' further delay was likely to be attended with injurious consequences.
It will be of interest to extract from the evidence given before the commission a few facts as to the then existing state of the drainage. Mr. Thwaites, the acting executive engineer, gives the exact size of the old main drain, which is worth quoting : " At its commencement in Syud Abdool
THE DRAINAGE AND SEWERAGE OF BOMBAY.	23
Rahman Street it is 2 feet wide by 2 feet high. The section of it is square. At 2350 feet from the commencement of the sewer, its size is 10 feet 9 inches wide by 4 feet high. The inclination is 1 in 451. It then runs on to 3800 feet and becomes 12 feet wide by 5 feet 6 inches in height, and the slope is 1 in 488. At 6500 feet the size is 20 feet 3 inches by 9 feet, and the inclination 1 in 941. At 7950 feet it is 20 feet 3 inches, but the height is 8 feet 6 inches, and the slope is 1 in 4677—that is, almost level. . . . At 9650 feet it is 20 feet wide by 9 feet 10 inches in height, and the slope is 1 in 1141. The arching then ceases, and the main drain runs over the Flats to the sluices as an open cut. . . . The arching is of roughly dressed stone, but the bottom is rubble." Mr. Thwaites goes on to add that every street has its drain, leading to its main outfall sewer, but he believes in many cases these drains were made " without any regular plan." He himself was at the time draining Kamatipura with three brick sewers running down Kursetji Suklaji Street, Centre Street, and Bazar Street respectively, each of them 3 feet 9 inches high by 2 feet 6 inches wide, and of the ovoid shape. Into these sewers ran 12-inch pipe drains down the centre of each cross street, and the district drained into the Umarkhari sewer which joined the main drain at Falkland Road. A large outfall drain had been completed at Sonapur, taking the sewage and storm waters of the Dhobi Talao district into Back Bay. There were also drains discharging into Back Bay at Chowpatti, Charney Road, opposite the English burial-ground, and two or three from Marine Lines and the districts on each side. The Dongari Koli Street district was drained into the harbour at Carnac Bunder and Modi Bay, and the Fort drainage was discharged between the Mint and the Arsenal,. A main sewer, however, as has
24	THE DRAINAGE AND SEWERAGE OF BOMBAY.
been observed elsewhere, had been constructed in the Fort, commencing on the Esplanade and running down Church Gate Street, across Elphinstone Circle, between the Town Hall and Town Barracks to the outfall. In connection with it brick sewers had been constructed along Bazar Gate Street, Tiornby Road, and the Eastern Boulevard. Half only of the brick sewers that were contemplated had been made, and none of the pipe drains, while the work had been stopped. The half complete system in the Fort had been designed to take both storm water and sewage.
Captain	16. Captain Tulloch's consternation on the receipt of Tulloch's
views mism	this report is easily to be imagined. To say that his represented
by Mr.	scheme had been misunderstood is far to understate the case.
scales
commission. It had been turned completely upside down, and condemned
for proposing the exact opposite of what it did propose.
(a.) Captain Tulloch did not recommend " pumping the rain water into the sea and also the sewage." He recommended, on the contrary, the construction of three huge sluices at Love Grove, Worli, and Dharavi, by which the storm waters might be run off from the Flats by gravitation. On rare occasions of extraordinary storms concurring with the tide-locking of the sluices, the pumps which he proposed to erect at Love Grove to raise the sewage for utilisation on land, might help to keep the town clear of storm water, and the sewage might " for a few hours," and " not oftener on the average than once a year," be discharged into the sea. This minor and subsidiary detail of his proposals the commission twisted into a scheme for pumping sewage and storm water all the year round into the sea. Later on in their report they condemned Captain Tulloch's " gigantic experiment " of sewage utilisation on land as risky, but failed to explain how the sewage could be both pumped into the
THE DRAINAGE AND SEWERAGE OF BOMBAY.	25
sea, as they said he intended it should be, and also used on the land.
(b.) Captain Tulloch did not positively recommend that night-soil should be passed into the sewers. He did, it is true, recommend water-closets as soon as a water supply of thirty gallons a head had been obtained, but not before ; but he went on to say that water-closets at that time " were out of the question," and that " for the purposes of his project, it really did not matter how the excreta were disposed of. If it were considered best not to let them go into the sewers the sewers would still have their work to do—viz., the removal of waste water ; or, if it was decided to discharge them into the sewers, they would be carried away in a few hours to be utilised on the land " (Report, p. 30). The fact seems to me to be that Captain Tulloch had mastered the truth that the addition of night-soil does not appreciably affect the character of sewage; and the practical difficulties in the way of a water-closet system, its adaptability to the habits of the people, and the character of the connection between the closet and the sewer, which have since proved so formidable, had hardly begun to suggest themselves. I need not remind the Corporation that the night-soil of the city has now been for some years discharged into the sewers, though, unfortunately, the system of Halalcore service still continues.
17. The report of the commission, and, I presume, also, the financial difficulties which began to thicken round the Municipality, postponed for two or three years any further attempt to grapple with the general question. Local improvements, however, were effected. In his report for 1870, Mr. Thwaites, who succeeded Mr. Aitken as engineer, announced the completion of the drainage of Kamatipura in the following words : " The aspect of this
26	THE DRAINAGE AND SEWERAGE OF BOMBAY.
district has been completely changed—about 32,572 feet or 6- miles of foul open drains, having an area of 5428 square yards, having been done away with, and brickwork sewers, or earthenware pipe drains, substituted in their place. Before this change took place, Kamatipura was one of the most badly drained districts of the town—now it is one of the best. The drainage from the houses used to run into the side drains, where it festered and fermented until dried up by the sun. Now the sewage is at once taken away from the houses before it has become offensive or dangerous. The following quantities of work have been executed in this district :—
Lineal feet.
Brickwork sewers	.	.	•	5,479
12-inch earthenware pipes .	.	12,475
9 /,	91	,I, .	6,086
6 t,	9!	91	. . 4,436
Major l'ulloch's second report.
The cost of the work is not given by Mr. Thwaites.
These brick sewers in Kamatipura were long after_ wards condemned by Mr. Baldwin Latham (Report, p. 51) as being " antiquated in design, of the old London vestry style."
In his report for the same year Mr. Thwaites described some improvements and additions which had been made to the Love Grove pumping plant, which, since the Kamatipura sewage had been conducted there, had been overburdened. Of these too the cost is not given. New storm-water sluices had also been erected at Love Grove, but of no larger size than the old ones.
18. Mr. Thwaites was succeeded in 1871 as executive engineer by Major Tulloch, whose short tenure of office was signalised by the elaborate examination he made of the sources of water supply available to the city, which culminated in that valuable report recommending the
THE DRAINAGE AND SEWERAGE OF BOMBAY.	27
vast Tansa project, which, twenty years later, became an accomplished fact. Major Tulloch was before long driven home by illness, and there, in 1872, he wrote the able report on the " Drainage and Sewerage of Bombay," in which he criticised the report of the commission of 1869, and further expanded his own views. This pamphlet, as well as the bulky volume in which his proposals as to water supply are set forth, is doubtless familiar to members of the Corporation, but it will not do to omit a reference to it. After giving a sketch of the earlier drainage projects which I have already described, and commenting with some indignation on the manner in which his proposals had been misconstrued by the commission of 1869, Major Tulloch again sets forth his views clearly and distinctly. He divides the city into three drainage districts ; the first draining towards the Flats, the second sloping towards Back Bay, the third (Elphinstone) sloping towards the harbour. That which has ever since been known as the First Drainage Section comprises Tardeo, Kamatipura, most of Khetwady, parts of Dhobi Talao and Bhooleshwur, with Market and Mandvi. Add to this the :old main drain and Naoroji Hill, and we have that irregularly shaped section of the city which members may see marked on many a drainage map in the Municipal offices, and which, from its apparently capricious outline, has perhaps been occasionally a source of bewilderment. Major Tulloch advised that the storm waters should be allowed to follow the natural fall of the land, and be run off into the sea through the old underground drains, " the number and sizes of which," as he truly observed, " are very great." He again pointed out the necessity for widening the sluices at Love Grove and elsewhere. He no longer proposed to pump the sewage at Love Grove into an iron main. He proposed
28	THE DRAINAGE AND SEWERAGE OF BOMBAY.
that the main sewer should be continued from Love Grove to a point near Sion, the sewage to be there lifted by pumping machinery into an open high-level sewer running to the north-west of Trombay, where it was to be applied to the land, and the effluent run off into the creek north of Trombay. There were to be four principal branch sewers. The first, starting from the Fort, was to run through the heart of the city and join the main sewer at Kamatipura. He did not consider it, however, essential that the Fort system should be connected with it. The second branch was to drain the Mazagon and Elphinstone districts and join the first branch " soon after it entered the town." The third branch was to drain the Back Bay district, running along Alfred (Queen's ?) Road, passing through Girgaum, and joining the main sewer at Kamatipura. The fourth branch was to be a very short one for the drainage of the north of the town, and was to join the main sewer on the Flats. In dealing with the question of night-soil removal Major Tulloch observed that he was still an advocate of the water-closet system, but if the existing system was adhered to, as it was certain the discharge into the harbour would not much longer be tolerated, the soil must be removed by railway, or by a steamer carrying it out to sea. He entered with some elaboration into the means for employing the former method, but pointed out that, however removed, the nuisance of a central collecting depot or depots would of necessity continue. Major Tulloch probably still continued to be of opinion that the application of sewage to land was the best way of disposing of it, but in the case of Bombay he deemed himself to be precluded from recommending a sea outfall. An injunction against the Love Grove outfall had in fact been threatened at the suit of Mr. Varjivandas Madhowdas, and was only withheld on the condition that the Munici-
THE DRAINAGE AND SEWERAGE OF BOMBAY.	29
pality should pay to that gentleman Rs. 12,200, being the rent of his bungalow at Rs. 300 a month, from 1st April, 1869, to 31st December, 1872, and Rs. 300 a month ever afterwards. I need not inform members that the Municipality has this bungalow still upon its hands. It was reasonable to suppose in 1872 that the Love Grove outfall had been finally condemned. With regard to a Colaba outfall, Government had written that they could " never consent to receive the sewage in the immediate foreshore of the new military cantonment at Colaba, and the proposed outfall is therefore inadmissible." Major Tulloch then ended by saying, "What then are we to do ? The western coast is closed to us ; Back Bay is closed to us ; Colaba is closed to us ; and the upper side of the harbour is closed to us. In the west, south, and east we cannot place an outfall. There is only one point of the compass left to us—that is, the north—and that is the direction in which this project contemplates that the sewage shall be taken."
19. In 1873, the Municipal Commissioner, Mr. W. G. Mr. Pedder's
pisro7p3. in
	Pedder, issued an important minute, entitled, "Proposals	sas
for Improvements to the City of Bombay," in which the subject of sewerage and drainage was discussed minutely and at length. After drawing a vivid picture of the existing condition of affairs, Mr. Pedder pointed out with his usual force that a complete scheme was what was required, and that it would in the end be cheaper than a series of local palliatives. Taking up Major Tulloch's reports, he advocated the construction of the street and house sewers and branch sewers leading to Bellasis Bridge, recommended by that officer, and a main sewer from that point as far as and beyond the then existing Love Grove pumping station to a spot about half a mile north of it on the foreshore west of Worli, Hill. He
30-	THE DRAINAGE AND SEWERAGE OF BOMBAY.
admitted that Major Tulloch's argument in favour of leading the sewage to the north was unanswerable, if the assumption that no western outfall was possible except at Love Grove was correct. But this Mr. Pedder did not believe to be the case. The existing pumping station he pronounced to be in the worst site possible, astride of the main road, in a gorge between two hills, so that with the prevailing westerly wind therewas an indraught towards the town, and at the head of a small but deep bay, so that the sewage, instead of being carried out to sea, was washed up by the tide into the bay. He proposed to place his pumping and defecating stations at a spot on the shore west of Worli Hill, and in a nook or bend of the hill. He argued that this locality was remote from traffic and from human habitation, that there would be no indraught, as the hill to the east would act as a natural ventilating shaft, and that the sewage would be discharged at the extremity of a promontory at low-water mark into the tideway of the sea. Two small bungalows on the top of Worli Hill he proposed to buy up. Mr. Pedder intended to defecate the sewage before discharging it into the sea, and described the process (General Scott's) which he proposed to adopt, though he was personally of opinion that it might with perfect safety and without any risk of fouling the western foreshore, be discharged in a crude
state.	Into the details of the proposed defecating process it is unnecessary to enter, but I must not omit a reference to the system of house connections and night-soil removal which were proposed by Mr. Pedder. The former he stated to be " absolutely safe as regards the admission of sewer gases to houses, as providing effectually for the exclusion of storm water from the sewers," and as having the further advantages of being cheap and easily adapted to the existing conditions of native houses,
THE DRAINAGE AND SEWERAGE OF BOMBAY.	31
and the habits of the people who lived in them. It was that " all the liquid sewage and sullage of every house, privy, cook-room, etc., should be collected in one or more external tanks or sinks, properly trapped, and communicating with the street sewer, the mouths of the pipes or downtakes, which carried the sewage into the sink, being separated from it by an air space."
In an appendix to Mr. Pedder's report, his views on the subject of house connections were developed in detail by the executive engineer, Mr. Rienzi Walton, who thus described them :—
"An earthenware pipe, 12, 9, or 6 inches in diameter, will be taken from the sewer or pipe drain in the centre of the street into the gully, which divides the houses to be drained. This pipe will terminate in a small cast-iron tank or receptacle 12 inches square by 25 inches deep, situated within a few feet of the entrance to the gully. At a convenient height from the level of the gully a catch-pipe (somewhat similar to the eaves-pipes of a roof) will be fixed almost horizontally to the side of the house. This catch-pipe will be made of sheet iron, something like the letter V in section, and at a few inches above the open portion of it a small eave of zinc or iron will be fixed, in order to intercept the entrance of rain water into it. This eave should be easily removable to facilitate cleaning. Into this catch-pipe all the downtake pipes which conduct the house sullage will be made to discharge themselves.
" At the points where the downtake pipes (i.e., pipes which take the sullage from cook-rooms, nanees, and the ablution water from privies) empty themselves into the catch-pipes, catch-basins made of sheet iron will be fitted, and for at least one foot on each side of these basins the section of the pipe will be circular. This precaution is
32	THE DRAINAGE AND SEWERAGE OF BOMBAY.
necessary to prevent the sewage from splashing over the side of the catch-pipe.
" The downtake pipes will 'break off' at about nine inches from the top of the catch-basins, and the catch-pipe will discharge itself into the small tank or receptacle at the entrance of the gully at about 12 inches above it, so that there will be an air space between the small tank and the catch-pipe ; and also between the catch-pipe and the downtake pipe. The latter will be carried up above the roof of the house, and will terminate with a perforated cave, having a perforated area equal to the sectional area of the pipe.
" Where several privies come consecutively together, a small catch-pipe will be constructed below the sill of their trapdoors, and connected with the common catch-pipe, but when their sills are on such a level as to admit of it, they will be connected direct with the catch-pipe."
In the earthenware pipe leading to the street sewer, there was placed a " flaptrap " and a syphon, and in the iron tank there was placed a diaphragm which converted it into a syphon.
The accompanying drawing shows what the proposal was.
For disposal of night-soil Mr. Pedder proposed the abolition of the Carnac Bunder depOt, and of all night-soil carts, and the establishment of sixteen depots on the " main branch sewers," to which it was to be conveyed in baskets. These depOts were to be closed domed buildings with a ventilating shaft. As the Corporation know, this system has been so far adopted that night-soil is now removed and discharged into the sewers, but we have not been able to abolish night-soil carts, and the consequence is that (except in some cases, where it is taken in baskets to the sewers) we have now collecting depots, where the
D
ONSM3H9
ii
0 )1. ..<
0 = -I -4 pi g
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NOILVA313
34	THE DRAINAGE AND SEWERAGE OF BOMBAY.
soil is transferred from baskets to carts, and discharging depots where the latter shoot their contents into the sewers. The old objection, that the addition of night-soil to sewage rendered the sewage dangerous, has given way, but the wet or water-closet system seems still far off, and until it is adopted, our Halalcore system with all its abominations, which have been for so many years and by so many pens denounced, will continue to disgrace the city.
20. But not yet had the time come for organised action on a basis wide enough to include the whole city ; and I must still continue the seemingly dreary tale of reports, and discussions, and commissions, leading to no immediate end, which, though it may weary the patience of my readers, is still essential to the correct understanding of the drainage history of the city. There were many schemes before the Corporation, all ably advocated, and there was the recommendation of the last Government Commission to do nothing. The questions at issue were so momentous, the impending charge upon the civic resources so great, and so many doubts and disagreements seemed to beset all the principal issues of this great question, that hesitancy and delay are easily to be accounted for. In taking a full and impartial view of the slow march of ideas and of action, nothing, I think, strikes the observer more forcibly than the danger of dogmatic confidence in the success of any scheme, however apparently faultless when put forward, and, if only it were possible, the prudence of reckoning with a hidden host of difficulties which are sure to arise later to hamper, perhaps to confound it. Who, for instance, would ever have imagined that our existing system of house connections, in theory so perfect and so apparently equal to every obstacle, would
THE DRAINAGE AND SEWERAGE OF BOMBAY.	35
ever be condemned because people use earth and sand to clean their pots with ? One other lesson perhaps of equal value may be learnt, and that is that almost any action is better than none at all.
Mr. Walton's design for house connections was introduced into Sonapur, though I have no details as to the sum expended on it, and was highly praised in the Health Officer's report for! 1875. Dr. Weir described it as the " first and greatest advance made towards scientific sanitation in Bombay." He had watched the system at work for more than two years, and the improvement it had effected had been remarkable. The house connections were " easily cleaned, difficult to put out of order, and, moreover, so ventilated that they could not possibly be the carriers of sewer air from the sewers to the houses." The only modification which Dr. Weir felt inclined to suggest was that the " catch-pipe " should be open along the top.
21. Sewer construction was not absolutely at an end at this time but was proceeding languidly and casually, as particular nuisances required to be dealt with. In 1876 a few feet of earthenware pipe drain were laid down, and a new brick sewer was laid in Marine Street to divert the sewage of the southern Fort from the Dockyard basin to the main sewer, whose outfall was close to the Mint. This new sewer was 1650 feet long and was contracted for at Rs. 29,500. Dukarwadi Lane was also pipe drained and fitted with house connections on Mr. Walton's plan. Mr. Braham, who was at this time in charge of the drainage department, describes the system as one that was " cheap, cleanly, innocuous, and that could not get out of order."
22. In his administration reports for 1875 and 1876 Dr. Hunter's commission,. the Health Officer had advocated with much vigour the 1877.
D 2
36	THE DRAINAGE AND SEWERAGE OF BOMBAY.
drainage scheme of Mr. Pedder and Major Tulloch, and had never ceased to proclaim in the ears of the citizens the dangers of further delay. On 17th April, 1877, he wrote, to use his own words, 'tin desperation " to the Municipal Commissioner, describing the condition of parts of the city, pointing out how the gradual extension of building operations added to the existing dangers, and again urging the " general drainage of the city." A " scheme " was called for by the Town Council from the Municipal Commissioner, and during the discussion one member, in the course of some severe remarks expressed a hope that the scheme would not be a mere " pretext for doing nothing." Discussions in the Corporation began to indicate much impatience with the usual dilatory pleas ; one leading member remarking at a debate in (I think) May, 1877, "I take it we have made up our minds firmly and honestly to provide a complete and efficient system of drainage for this town, and that nobody shall be permitted to trifle with that determination." Another member said : " They were told they ought to proceed with the utmost possible caution, because if they adopted Mr. Walton's scheme they might cause some nuisance. But how with the Carnac Bunder nuisance before their eyes, and the reeking stinking drains they met wherever they went, and with Back Bay fouled—how could they be so squeamish ? Talk about straining at a gnat and swallowing a camel ; that was straining at a gnat and swallowing a whole caravan of camels." In June 1877 Sir Richard Temple's Government addressed the Municipality, drawing " their immediate attention to the necessity for the provision of additional drainage for the city," and adding that there seemed to be " a consensus of opinion as to the urgency of certain evils, and the mode of remedying
ME DRAINAGE AND SEWERAGE OF BOMBAY.	37
them." The Town Council (now the Standing Committee) gave more than one meeting to the subject, and on 24th July, 1877, advised the Corporation to ask the Government to appoint a special commission to determine what scheme was best to be adopted, or else to invite an eminent engineer from England to settle it, and undertaking to recommend the Corporation to provide the necessary means. On 29th September the Corporation resolved to ask the Government to appoint a special commission ; and on 15th October the Government responded to the appeal by appointing a commission composed of the following gentlemen—
Surgeon-General G. W. Hunter, M.D. (President),
J. E. H. Hart, Esq., M.I.C.E.,
Wilson Bell, Esq., M.I.C.E.,
Captain E. L. Marryat, R.E. (Secretary)—
to determine the best scheme of drainage for the Municipality to adopt within a cost of 50 lakhs of rupees.
The commission was engaged in taking evidence from 13th November to 11th December, and the following gentlemen were examined :—
Mr. R. Walton (twice),
Mr. Braham (twice),
Mr. Pedder,
Dr. Weir,
Mr. Corke, }
assistants to Master Attendant of the Port,
Mr. Jolley
Mr. G. Ormiston,
Mr. Johnstone (contractor for sluices at Love Grove),
Captain H. Morland,
Mr. T. Blaney,
Mr. A. T. Crawford,
Dr. Cook,
Dr. Hewlett,
Mr. Gostling,
Dr. Lyon,
Dr. Gray.
38	THE - DRAINAGE AND SEWERAGE OF BOMBAY.
On 22nd January, 1878, the commission issued their report. They recommended the adoption of Major Tulloch's scheme as modified by Mr. Walton, and had no doubt that the outfall might safely be placed at Love Grove. They went with some care into the question of this outfall, for strong opinions had been expressed by some of the witnesses examined as to the danger of it, and there was some weight of evidence in favour of sewage utilisation on land at Sion. The commission were of opinion that the nuisance admittedly existing at Love Grove was due to the faulty construction of the outlet drain and the ponding up of the sewage in a basin, " formed by the excavation of the well in front of the sluices not having been taken down to the requisite level," and that " if the outlet drain were properly constructed, carried out below low-water springs, and the rock harrier in the creek removed, the Love Grove nuisance would cease." They did not believe there was any fouling of the foreshore except to a slight extent close to the outfall, in spite of the fact that four or five million gallons a day of sewage had been poured into the sea for more than ten years. They believed that the set of the inshore currents was seaward and not towards the foreshore. They were therefore of opinion that, " provided the sewage were discharged at not less than eight feet below low-water springs," there would be no deposit on the foreshore, and the proposed outfall might be safely adopted ; and they did not think it at all necessary to defecate the sewage before discharge into the sea. With regard to subsidiary questions they considered that under certain conditions—of which the most important were that the water supply should be not less than twenty gallons a head, and that the house connections should he suitable—night-soil might be freely admitted
THE DRAINAGE AND SEWERAGE OF BOMBAY.	39
into the sewers, and recommended that a standard type of water-closet should be enforced except in huts and poor houses where house connections were impossible, and these were to be served by public latrines and urinals. They insisted upon the importance of freely ventilating all sewers, but seem on the whole to have been opposed to shaft ventilators, and were careful to insist on the " broken joint system " for house connections. I need hardly add that the commission were in favour of the separation of storm water from sewage ; and they recommended the interception of the storm waters as far as possible on the high levels and their removal by gravitation to the harbour and Back Bay.
The report of this commission was a very valuable one, and from this point commences a new era in the drainage history of the city. While the commission was sitting a strong memorandum in favour of the sewerage of the city, written by the Army Sanitary Commission, with a minute by Mr. Rawlinson attached, had been received from the Secretary of State. These were laid before the commission.
It is clearly impossible that I should in a report of this character give anything approaching a digest or summary of the evidence given before the commission. That evidence must be perused by those who wish to become acquainted with it. I may, however, refer to Mr. Braham, then deputy executive engineer, but in charge of the drainage department, who had a sort of counter scheme to Mr. Walton's, which provided for
outfalls both at Colaba and Love Grove, and proposed a peculiar method of drainage by which the joints of the
pipes were to be partially open so as to admit subsoil water. This idea he afterwards modified into one for
40	THE DRAINAGE AND SEWERAGE OF BOMBAY.
Commencement of sewerage woiks.
placing small pipes in above each joint, so as to admit subsoil water. The scheme seemed to have nothing to recommend it, was evidently not thought out with much precision, and was open to a number of very serious objections, which were brought out in cross-examination.
Another scheme for main sewerage which was submitted at this time was that of Major Ducat, R.E. He proposed that there should be three independent systems, to which might ultimately be added a fourth for Parel and Sion.
1. For the Fort, Esplanade, and Colaba, a main sewer running out beyond the " rock reef forming the barrier of Back Bay."
2. For Sonapur, Girgaum, Kamatipura, and such part of the native town as would naturally fall into it, a main sewer to the end of Malabar Point, tunnelled under it and discharging at Walkeshwar.
3. For the Elphinstone Estate, Mazagon, Byculla, and the rest of the native town, a main sewer to Love Grove or Mahaluxim.
From all three sewers the discharge was to be continuous and at a depth of ten feet below low-water springs.
The scheme was not worked out with plans and estimates, and need not at this date be further dwelt on.
23. The Municipality took up the subject with commendable promptness, and on 29th March, 1878, or only a few days over two months from the date of the report, the Corporation resolved to sanction " the immediate commencement and vigorous prosecution of the approved scheme." The Government of India were applied to for a loan of sixty lakhs, to cover the cost of the drainage
THE DRAINAGE AND SEWERAGE OF BOMBAY	41
scheme, and of a new service reservoir (which had also been recommended by the commission), but their reply being unfavourable, the Corporation resolved on 10th September, 1878, to raise a loan of twenty-seven lakhs in Bombay, of which nine and a half lakhs were for the reservoir. On 17th December work was commenced departmentally, the executive engineer, Mr. Walton, being placed on special duty for the purpose. The works to be undertaken comprised the laying of a new main sewer from Carnac Bunder to Love Grove, a number of pipe sewers connected with it, and a new outfall sewer, pumping station and pumping plant, at Love Grove. The sluices at Love Grove had been already renewed and the channel excavated to 72 T.H.D. during 1877-78. The departmental system of work was not prolonged, however, beyond the first season, and just before the end of 1879 contracts for the main sewer and outfall sewer were entered into with Sir Thomas Thompson and Co., and for the pipe sewers with Dadabhai Nasarwanji and Co. It will be well to recall attention to the fact here that but for the refusal of the Government of India to lend the funds required, the full scheme, estimated, with the service reservoir, to cost between fifty and sixty lakhs of rupees, would have been sanctioned ; for the resolution of the Corporation of 29th March, 1878, to which I have referred above, contemplated, to use the words of the preamble, " the immediate commencement and vigorous prosecution of the drainage and sewerage works approved by the Government Commission." But with the prospect of raising a loan in the Bombay market colder counsels prevailed, and on 27th August, 1878, the resolution (that was carried) for borrowing twenty-seven lakhs, premised that as the Government of India had declined to grant the loan of sixty lakhs, it was CCinadvisable to undertake the imme-
42	THE DRAINAGE AND SEWERAGE OF BOMBAY.
diate execution of the whole scheme for the drainage and sewerage of Bombay, and that, with a view to exercise due caution in the trial of such an experiment," twenty-seven lakhs only should be borrowed, of which seventeen and a half were to be applied to carrying out " the most important portion of the scheme for removing the sewage and night-soil from Carnac Bunder and Elphinstone Estate to the proposed outfall at Love Grove, and abating the nuisance caused by the pollution of Bombay Harbour with night-soil ; " and this was confirmed on 10th September, when the Commissioner's report as to ways and means had been laid before the Corporation. The exact amount allocated to the drainage scheme as per Town Council resolution, No. 437 of 4th March, 1879, was Its. 15,77,649. The values of the contracts which were let towards the end of 1879 were :—
Rs.
Main sewer .	.	.	.	4,69,974
Pipe sewers.	.	.	.	.	3,71,164
Outfail sewer	.	.	.	.	.	2,03,542
At the same time attention was being directed to another branch of the subject—viz., the sewerage of Kamatipura. On 31st October, 1877, the Corporation asked the Town Council to provide Rs. 67,612 out of " any surplus remaining from the seventeen lakhs loan after the completion of the drainage works already sanctioned," for relaying the pipe sewers in Kamatipura in the gullies at the backs of houses, and for three shaft ventilators. The Sanitary Commissioner to Government, however, interposed, and pointed out that the money thus to be spent would be thrown away. Special inquiries as to the condition of Kamatipura were thereupon instituted. The executive engineer on special duty (Mr. Walton) reported on 12th August, 1880, that the system of drainage in
THE DRAINAGE AND SEWERAGE OF BOMBAY.	43
Kamatipura was a " complete failure," the joints of the pipes in the streets were made of mud, so that sewage could not be passed through them, and that the storm water and sewage were conducted by the same channel, and the brick sewers were connected direct with the old unventilated Umarkhadi sewer. What was wanted was to relay the pipe sewers with cement joints in the gullies at the backs of houses and make them discharge into three 12-inch or 15-inch pipe sewers, and to lead these into a brick sewer joining the new main sewer in Grant Road. A considerable amount of discussion followed, but in July, 1881, a scheme of Mr. Walton's for the complete re-sewerage of Kamatipura, including house connections, was laid before the Town Council. The scheme provided for the relaying of the pipe sewers " with proper taps and syphons " under the gullies at the sides and backs of houses, and leading them into the three existing ovoid brick sewers, from which storm waters were to be rigidly excluded. These ovoid sewers were to be intercepted at their old outfall into the Umarkhadi sewer, and their contents led by an ovoid sewer 2 feet 6 inches by 3 feet 9 inches into the new main sewer in Grant Road. The house connections were designed by Mr. Walton to take both night-soil and sullage water, and included privy pans. They were on a principle " sanctioned by the Special Drainage Commission, and approved by Mr. Rawlinson," but I have no drawings of them. Automatic flushing tanks were provided at the head of each ovoid sewer, and seven masonry ventilating shafts were included in the scheme. The Health Officer expressed doubts as to the wisdom of introducing a new system of water-closets on so large a scale, and this part of Mr. Walton's scheme was modified by the Commissioner, Mr. (now Sir Charles) 011ivant, who recommended instead that a certain
44	THE DRAINAGE AND SEWERAGE OF BOMBAY.
number of experimental " privies " (more properly water-closets) should be erected, as follows :—
Pri vies.	Seats.
12th Street	house 37	..	.2	4
	$1 11	,, 36 .. 1	3
5th	/1	II. D. Chawl	..	10	10
8th	99	house 55	..	2	3
Ultimately the scheme was approved and sanctioned by the Corporation on 29th July, 1881, at a cost of Rs. 1,50,435.4.3, to be met from the sum of Rs. 67,000 set apart for this purpose in the drainage loan, and from surplus cash balance, but with the proviso that " privy connections be not carried out until the Commissioner has reported to the Corporation upon the experiment suggested by him, and that a sum of Rs. 2500 be placed at his disposal for the purpose."
Though it is leading me away from my main topic, I may perhaps with advantage carry this branch of the subject to its conclusion. On a requisition from the Corporation progress was reported to them at their meeting of 31st August, 1883, when it appeared that the ovoid and pipe sewers were practically complete, but for various reasons much remained to be done to complete the work of house connections. Seven privies, however, and seventy-four nahanis had been connected and " were working exceedingly well." After taking a month to consider the reports, the Corporation at their first meeting in October, 1883, voted a further sum of Rs. 22,403.11.2 to complete house connections, excluding privy connections, and on 10th March, 1884, they transferred another sum of Rs. 15,070 from savings on the seventeen lakhs drainage loan for the same purpose. The final completion of the house connections was reported by Mr. Walton on 17th August, 1887.
THE DRAINAGE AND SEWERAGE OF BOMBAY.	45
24. I must ask to be excused for being led so far down a back alley, but it seemed advisable, having been obliged chronologically to refer to the re-sewerage of Kamatipura, to dispose of that detail at once. I will now revert to the principal scheme. On 27th May, 1881, the new main sewer from Frere Road, near Carnac Bunder, to Love Grove, near the new pumping station, was completed, five days within the contract time. It was of the ovoid shape, and of the dimensions and length shown in the following table :—
From	To	Clear Internal Wid th.		Clear Internal Height.		Dia-tance.
		Feet.	Inches.	Feet.	Inches.	Miles.
Frere	Road	South	2	8	3	4,,	0-52
Road)	South end of Shaikh Me- mon Street	2	4	5	9	078
(C a r n a c Bunder)	Kawasji Patel } Tank	3	10	5	9/	0 • 51
South end of Shaikh Me- mon Street	Junction	of	3	8	7	99	0 • 14
i	Khetwadi Back Road i with Khet-1	4	4	8	9	1 • 35
I	wadi	10th	5			,,	0 • 95
Kawasji Patel Tank	Lane				,,	
It	Junction	of					
Junction	of	Grant Road					
Khetwadi Back Road	with	Falk-					
with	10th	land Road					
Lane	Clerk	Road)					
Junction	of	Crossing					
Grant Road I	Love Grove					
and	Falk-						
land Road						
Clerk	Road)						
Crossing						
						4.25
The complete cost of this great work was Rs. 4,92,395 . 7 . 4, or in round figures five lakhs. This included, of course, a number of small works ancillary to it, such as the diver-
Completion of first part of sewerage scheme.
46	THE DRAINAGE AND SEWERAGE OF BOMBAY.
sion of the Umarkhadi sewer, a 9-inch pipe in Khetwadi Lane, and so on..
Many years afterwards Mr. Baldwin Latham reported that this and the other main brick sewers (except the old ones in Kamatipura) had been properly designed with reference to their size and gradient, and would be self-cleansing if fairly treated, but owing to the accumulation of silt the rates of inclination of the sewage had been, on the average, reduced from 1 in 1347 to 1 in 2200, a diminution of fall which would alone diminish the velocity of flow by 25 per cent.
The double-barrelled concrete sewer from Love Grove to the outlet well was completed in 1880 at a total cost of Rs. 2,41,173.6.11. This double-barrelled sewer commenced on the west side of the public road at Love Grove, and was carried above high-water mark along the slope of Worli Hill to an outlet well on the south-west of it from which two parallel 36-inch iron pipes ran into the sea 731 feet from the outlet well into a depth of 6 feet below low-water spring tides. The portion from the outlet well seawards was not completed till after the rains of 1881.
I do not very well know how to deal with the third of the contracts above referred to—that for pipe sewers—except by giving a list of the streets in which, on completion of the contract, they had been laid. The pipes were of 12-inch, 9-inch and 6-inch dimensions, and were all of London-made (Doulton's) stoneware—the very best material in the market then and now. Mr. Baldwin Latham, writing in 1890, said of the pipe sewers of Bombay generally that the quality of the materials was the very best that could be used, and like materials should continue to be used in the construction of all new pipe sewers (p. 58). He also said that very great care had been taken in the construction of these sewers ; and
THE DRAINAGE AND SEWERAGE OF BOMBAY.	47
the mode of jointing the pipes, so as to render them as watertight as possible, was superior to what he had seen in any other place, and that, taking into consideration the difficulties attending the first construction of works of a novel character in a new country, inexperienced in the construction of such works, the laying of the pipe sewers did " infinite credit to all concerned " (pp. 51, 52).
The entire cost of the contract for the pipe sewers I am now considering came to Rs. 2,53,295 .7 .10, and the work was not reported as fully complete till the season of 1883-84, though the contract time expired on 1st June, 1881. The following is a list of streets in which pipe sewers were laid under this contract :—
Nowroji Hill Street,
3rd Chinch Bunder Row,
2nd ?I	If
1st	,,	99
4th	!I	I/	t 9
Dongri Koli Street,
Chinch Bunder Passage,
Kaji Syud Street and Dongri
Koli Cross Lane,
Bhandarwada Street,
Koliwada Lane,
Syud Mookri Street,
Shaikh Ali Janjiker Street,
Shamji Hassaji Street,
Old Kaji Street,
Sutarchal Street,
Chambarwada Street,
Dungri Tantanpura Street,
Khuduk Street,
Masjid Bonder Cross Road,
Dariasthan Road,
Dongri d' Souza Street,
Old Jambli Street,
Esaji Hassaji Street,
2nd Chambarwada Street,
Husein Khan Khalifa Row, New Memonwada Street,
Butcher Street,
Balloo Sarang Street,
Pinjari Street,
Tantanpura Street,
Don Tad 3rd Row,
Mumbadevi Tank Road,
Khuduk Cross Lane,
Israel Moolla Cross Lane,
Dariasthan Cross Lane,
Dongri Jao Souza Street,
1st Koombharwada Cross Lane,
2nd Koombharwada Street,
Bhajee Pala Row,
Bhajee Pala Cross Lane,
New Memonwada Lane,
1st Koombharwada Street,
Goolam Mohideen Dowji Street,
Nagdevi Street,
Nagdevi Row,
Beebee San Row,
Naren Dhuroo Row and Street,
Dhunjee Doongree Street,
1st and 3rd Agiary Lanes,
Balajee Shamshet Street,
Mirza Oilmaker Street,
48	THE DRAINAGE AND SEWERAGE OF BOMBAY.
Esplanade Cross Road, Kalbadevi Road,
Picquet Road,
Esplanade Cross Lane, Jamboolwadi Lane, Takwadi,
2nd Esplanade Cross Lane, Loharchal Street,
1st Kolbhat Lane,
New Ilanuman Lane, Old Hanuman Lane, 2nd Kolbhat Lane, 3rd Kulbhat Lane, Cavel Street,
Cave! Lane,
Hanuman Cross Lane, Old Ilanuman Cross Lane, Kitchen Garden Lane, Vithalwadi Street, Katarwadi Lane,
1st Vithalwadi Cross Lane, Vithalwadi Cross Lane, Talwadi Lane,
Dady Sett Agiary Street, Agiary Street,
1st Phanas Wadi Lane, 2nd Phanas Wadi Lane, 1st Portuguese Lane, Malharrao Wadi Lane, 1st Phophulwadi Lane, Motishall's Chawl,
2nd Phophulwadi Lane, 1st Bhooleshwur Lane, Hanuman Phul Lane, Panchayet Wadi Lane, Portuguese Church Street, Anand Rashi Wadi Lane, Church Lane, Koombhartukda, Thakurdwar Road, 1st Thakurdwar Cross Lane, Phanas Wadi Cross Lane, Khatturwadi Cross Lane, Khandewadi Lane,
Moogbhat Lane,
Khandewadi Cross Lane,
Khetwadi Road,
2nd Carpenter Street,
Sindee Lane,
Islampura, Street,
1st Khetwadi Lane,
2nd	99	19
3rd	99	9P
4th	99	19
5th	t,	1,
Gth	/9	99
7th	19	99
8th	99	92
9th	99	II
12th	99	9/
2nd Parsee Wada. Street,
3rd	„	,,	,,
Girgaum Back Road,
Rashim Gully,
Jaganath Sadashivji Street,
Kakudwadi Street,
Chima Gaolin Lane,
Falkland Road,
Khambatta Lane,
Khetwadi Cross Lane,
Nasarwanji Patlu Street and
Grant Road,
Chunam Kiln Road,
Public passage behind Dharmsala,
Tardeo Cross Lane,
Tardeo Road,
Grant Road Station Road,
Kamatipura Form Road,
Gamdevi Road,
Breach Candy Road,
Gowalia Tank Road,
Damur Gully,
Breach Candy New Road,
Gilder Street,
Annesley Road,
Bellasis Road,
Arthur Road,
Chikalwadi,
-THE DRAINAGE AND SEWERAGE OF BOMBAY.	49
A considerable number of streets and lanes originally included in were ultimately omitted from the contract, and the laying of pipe sewers in them postponed until house connections were put up. The principal reason was that they were occupied in their whole width by masonry drains, and if these were broken up no passage would remain for the sewage during the process of laying the pipes or until the houses were connected with the latter.
25. I must now turn to another branch of the subject, the provision of new pumping machinery and buildings to contain it, which was taken up at this time. As I have already stated, the old pumping station, erected in 1867, contained two centrifugal pumps and a chain pump. In 1869 the flow of sewage to the station was materially increased by the execution of the sewerage works at Kamatipura, and though three new boilers were erected in that year the power was still insufficient The machinery, moreover, was badly arranged, as all three pumps worked in one well, and when an accident happened to any one of them it was necessary to stop the working of all three until it was repaired. In 1869-70 two new chain pumps were erected and one of the centrifugal pumps removed—there were thus four pumps, and each of them was placed in a separate pump-well or sump, communicating with Mr. Aitken's low-level sewer, but capable of being cut off from it by a sluice-gate or penktock. If an accident now happened to any pump it could be cut off from the sewer and the damage repaired without stopping the other pumps. In 1872 the last of the old centrifugal pumps was removed, and a large direct-acting centrifugal pump of 42 H.P. nominal was erected in its room. This pump was capable of lifting 15,552,000 gallons per diem, and the four pumps collectively were equal. to 20,448,000 gallons per diem, and as the daily
E
New pumping machinery and station.
50	THE DRAINAGE AND SEWERAGE OF BOMBAY.
task was less than 8,000,000 gallons, the margin of power was considerable. Experience showed that it was difficult to keep the chain pumps in order, but that when in order they worked well. The centrifugal pumps, though in the first instance they had been thought by comparison to be less efficient, were, in the end, found the more suitable. In October, 1874, the large centrifugal pump broke down, and so seriously that it had to be removed to the workshops for repairs, while a new pump which was in store was erected in its place. From time to time after this the pumps gave a great deal of trouble, and in 1875 the pumping station was placed under the direct control of the Superintendent of Workshops. Up to 1877 the pumps had been used only in the fair weather, while during the monsoon they were stopped, and storm water and sewage got away as best they could by the old main drain, or flowed over the Flats. In 1877 the pumps were for the first time worked during the rains. I have mentioned in paragraph 23 that a new pumping station and machinery were included in the sanctioned scheme for drainage. The substructure, including the foundations for engines and the pump wells, was completed in 1881 at a cost of Rs. 20,103.1 .2. The superstructure, including engine and boiler houses, chimney, reservoir, shred-lifting chamber, etc., was completed in February, 1884, at a cost of Es. 75,214.8, making the total cost of the new station, exclusive of machinery, Rs. 95,317.9.2. When the new pumping station was first sanctioned it was not intended to erect more than one pair of pumping engines, which were to cope with the sewage from the first drainage section. For the pumping of the sewage of all other parts of the town then draining to Love Grove it was intended to use the old pumping plant, and it was in contemplation to connect the old station with the new outfall
THE DRAINAGE AND SEWERAGE OF BOMBAY.	M
sewer. The arrangement was not, however, a practicable or workable one, and, in the end, four engines and pumps were placed in the new station instead of two, and the old station was finally abandoned. The first pair of engines with pumps and boilers was ordered early in 1880. Open
•	tenders for the machinery were invited, and the tender of Messrs. Yates and Co., who were, I believe, mill engineers
of high repute, was accepted, contrary to Mr. Walton's advice. Mr. Walton would have accepted the tender of another firm (Easton and Anderson), who were experts in the manufacture of pumping machinery, though it was 20 per cent. higher than that of Messrs. Yates, and I have no hesitation in saying that Mr. Walton was right. The system of open tenders where mechanism of a special. character is required may be safely condemned as conducive neither to economy nor efficiency. A maker of any sort of machinery will of course not throw away a chance of profit, and if he meets with an open invitation to tender for machinery he may be expected to reply to it, magnanimously careless whether it is for a railway locomotive, a steam pump, a steam roller, or a fire engine; but a prudent guardian of funds, whether his own or the public's, should not be so ready to confound together branches of mechanical manufacture which in practice are always kept apart, but should understand that if he wants
pumping engines he should apply to those whose business it is to make them, if he wants fire engines he should confine his invitations to the firms engaged in that special branch of manufacture, and so on. The principle of open tenders for everything, " giving every one a fair chance," has a fine sound, and as a text for declamation has all the advantage which sound has over sense, but it is not the way to get the best value for the money to be expended. The tender which in this case was accepted
E2
52	THE DRAINAGE AND SEWERAGE OF BOMBAY.
amounted to Rs. 86,500. The machinery was delivered in May, 1881. It was erected by the makers, and a trial start was made in December, 1882. It was, however, unsuccessful, and regular daily duty was not undertaken until March, 1883, though the engines were intermittently at work up to that date. For some time afterwards there were difficulties, but in a few months the engines and pumps were reported to be working " satisfactorily." In the meantime, in consequence of the determination to construct an intercepting sewer along Queen's Road in order to divert to Love Grove the whole sewage discharged into Back Bay, it had been felt that a further increase to the pumping plant was required, and a second pair of engines and pumps, sanctioned by the Corporation in December, 1881, and by the Town Council in January, 1882, was ordered from the same makers, at a cost of Rs. 99,600. They were delivered in August, 1882, and started in August, 1883. The machinery at the old pumping station was sold by auction in 1884. Mr. Aitken's old " low-level sewer," was connected with the new main sewer in 1882, at a point a little north of Bellasis Bridge. I shall refer to the efficiency of these engines further on when I come to their being replaced by the present engines and pumps.
26. In 1882 and 1883 a branch main sewer 2 feet 6 inches by 3 feet 9 inches was constructed along Clerk Road from the point where the main sewer passes under it to what was then called the " Six Way Central Station on the Flats " but is now called Jacob's Circle. The cost of this was Rs. 30,054 .3.2. In 1884-85 this branch was extended along Clerk Road as far as to Parel Road opposite the Victoria Gardens, at a further cost of Rs. 32,940. The total length of this branch was 5121 feet. In the same year an 18-inch pipe sewer, 10,735 feet long, was laid in
THE DRAINAGE AND SEWERAGE OF BOMBAY.	53
De Lisle Road, from Elphinstone Road to Clerk Road, at a cost of Rs. 63,202, and a 15-inch pipe sewer, 2033 feet long, was laid in Arthur Road, at a cost apparently of Rs. 32,088. I am not sure, however, whether a part of this last sum is not correctly debitable to the Clerk Road branch, or ovoid, sewer. It is right that I should observe of the De Lisle Road pipe sewer that the consulting engineer (Mr. Forde) thought the gradient too flat, but Mr. Walton, though he also thought so, believed that the velocity of sewage would be sufficient, as the sewer was perfectly straight and six automatic flushing syphons were provided (Ex. Eng., 3320 of 17th October, 1883). I need scarcely say that time has shown Mr. Forde's objection to be sound.
27. The most important extension undertaken between Queen's Road 1882 and 1885 was the Queen's Road intercepting sewer. sewer. In September, 1881, the Commissioner (Mr. 011ivant) had laid before the Corporation proposals for further expenditure, which included 33 lakhs for sewerage, 9 lakhs for surface drainage, and 10 for house connections. These proposals gave rise to prolonged discussion, but it was decided on the 8th December, 1881, to take leave to borrow about 15 lakhs, of which a little over 10 lakhs were for drainage and sewerage, and which included an item of Rs. 1,92,000 (minus a Government contribution of Rs. 50,000) for the Queen's Road intercepting sewer. A separate resolution passed the day before had sanctioned the construction of the Queen's Road sewer, the Government grant of Rs. 50,000 (sanctioned in G. R. No. 4050 of 21st October, 1881, Fin. Dept.) being contingent on immediate execution of the works. A good deal of difficulty was experienced in letting the contract for this work, but it was commenced in December, 1882, the value of the contract being Rs. 1,38,104. The contract
54	THE DRAINAGE AND SEWERAGE OF BOMBAY.
period for completion was 1st February, 1885, but in February, 1884, the contractor entered into an agreement by which he was to receive an extra sum of Rs. 10,000 if he finished by 15th June, 1884. Within two months, however, he declared himself unable to continue the contract, and withdrew from it on 14th April. It was immediately determined to proceed with it departmentally ; and working with extraordinary energy, and favoured by a late monsoon, the executive engineer was able to complete the sewer by 2nd July, 1884. Its total length was 8898 feet, its dimensions 2 feet 6 inches by 3 feet 9 inches, and the cost, including Rs. 4662 for a 9-inch pipe from the Girgaum night-soil depot, was Rs. 1,41,928. From the head of this sewer was laid a 15-inch pipe, called the Marine Lines pipe sewer, which passes down Marine Lines, Church Gate Street and Mayo Road, as far as the centre of the Secretariat. It was laid in 1884-85 at a cost of Es. 23,765. These sewers entirely intercept the sewage formerly flowing to Back Bay, but for one reason or another they have from time to time given a rather unusual amount of trouble. It has been very difficult, indeed impossible, to keep the Queen's Road sewer clear of silt, and the Marine Lines sewer, besides being laid with a very slight gradient, has been much interfered with by roots of trees, which have penetrated the joints and choked the pipes ; and a great mistake was made when it was determined by Government, in opposition to the strong protest' of the Municipality, that it should be ventilated at the road surface, instead of by shafts.
The Queen's Road ovoid sewer extends from a point opposite the Marine Lines Hospital, along Queen's Road and Charni Road, and joins the main sewer at Khetwadi Back Road.
THE DRAINAGE AND SEWERAGE OF BOMBAY.	55
28. In December, 1883, the Town Council authorised the Commissioner to proceed with the following works, to which I have as yet made no reference, and which had been sanctioned by the Corporation in the preceding May :—
. Ovoid sewer from the Arthur Crawford Market to the Mint.
2. Ovoid sewer across the old racecourse.
3. Pipe sewer from Clare Road along south portions of Haines and De Lisle Roads.
The object of the first, an ovoid sewer 2 feet 6 inches by 3 feet 9 inches from the main sewer at the south end of Shaikh Memon Street by Hornby Road and the Eastern Boulevard (Mint Road) to the Mint, was to intercept the sewage of the Fort at the old Mint outfall discharging into the harbour. The contract was let for Rs. 81,226.
The ovoid sewer across the old racecourse, which is now known as the Ripon Road sewer, was contracted for at Rs. 58,933.
The pipe sewer from Clare Road, which with its connections is spoken of in the engineers' reports as " pipe sewers in the Agripada District," was contracted for at Rs. 1,00,907.
All these contracts were let on 20th March, 1884.
The contract time for the ovoid sewer from the A. C. markets to the Mint expired on 16th June, 1885, but the work was not completed till April, 1888, and cost Rs. 90,568 . 4 .7. Both for the long delay and for the excess on the sanctioned estimate, a cause was to be found in the unexpected amount of rock excavation which was required ; but the engineers were not satisfied with the way in which the contractors worked.
Further extensions. Agripada.
56	THE DRAINAGE AND SEWERAGE OF BOMBAY.
The Fort.
The Ripon Road sewer was completed in 1885-86 at a cost of Rs. 59,732 .13.10.
The pipe sewers in Agripada (Clare Road, etc.) were completed in the same year, but owing to a variety of claims by the contractors and references to arbitration, the accounts were not closed until April, 1890, when the total cost of the work was found to be Rs. 94,564.
' 29. Surveys for the sewerage of the Fort were sanctioned in the same month as the works referred to in the last paragraph, viz., May, 1883. They were reported on to the Commissioner in November of the same year, and the plans and estimates received the approval of the Corporation in December, 1884. It will not be forgotten that a part of the Fort had been sewered by Mr. Russel Aitken (v. paras. 11 and 15, above), and the Commissioner in his report on the surveys of the Fort, referred to these sewers as being of good construction and condition, but unsuited to present requirements, while all the other sewers were of faulty construction or in a ruinous state. Of the total estimates, Rs. 382,615 (approximately) were for pipe sewers to take the place of those sewers which were condemned as bad, while the remaining Rs. 70,714 (approximately) were for pipe sewers to take the place of the ovoid intercepting sewers. These latter (Mr. Aitken's ovoid sewers) encircled the Fort from Bazar Gate on the north to Marine Street on the south, and from Frere Fountain on the west to the Mint on the east, connected by a central chord passing along Church Gate Street and Elphinstone Circle. The objection to them was that they were designed for storm water as well as sewage ; they could not, therefore, be connected in times of rain with the new main sewer, they would have to discharge into the harbour, which was objectionable, while in the fair season they were both in respect of capacity and of
THE DRAINAGE AND SEWERAGE OF BOMBAY.	57
gradient ill adapted to carry sewage alone ; the flow was sluggish, the deposit of solids was inevitable, and offensive smells the necessary result. Mr. Walton's estimates for the re-sewerage of the Fort, amounting to Rs. 4,53,329, were, as already stated, sanctioned by the Corporation on 22nd December, 1884. The sewers provided for were all pipe sewers, varying in size from 9 inches to 18 inches ; and ventilating shafts, flushing cisterns, branch pipes as far as the gullies or houses, and gully traps, were all provided for, but no house connections. The work was let by contract, but there were once more difficulties with the contractors, and it was finished departmentally, and at the final adjustment of accounts in 1891-92, it was found to have cost Rs. 3,98,272. 13 . 7. The contract work had, however, been practically completed and the sewers were ready for use more than two years earlier, i.e., in February, 1889.
30. I shall make a short separate reference further on to the subject of house connections, but as I am now dealing with the extension of sewers, I go on to say that in July, 1887, the Corporation sanctioned a sum of Rs. 11,14,929 for pipe sewers and house connections in what is called the Queen's Road and Girgaum drainage district, that is to say, the district formerly draining to Back Bay, but now served by the Queen's Road ovoid sewer. The Corporation had determined, and in 1885-86, after the report of a special committee, re-affirmed their decision, that the cost of house connections in the " first drainage section " should be borne by the Municipality. The Queen's Road and Girgaum drainage district was outside the first drainage section, but the Corporation extended to it the same indulgence, and out of the grant of Rs. 11,14,929, no less than Rs. 8,27,331 were for house connections, only Rs. 2,87,598 being for " pipe sewers,
Queen's Road and Girgaum house connections and pipe sewers.
Summary. Port Trust Estate.
58	THE DRAINAGE AND SEWERAGE OF BOMBAY.
gully branches, and street syphons." The work was let by contract, and was completed within the contract time (12th May, 1891) at a cost of Rs. 7,95,809.
31. Pipe sewers were laid in those streets of Khetwacli which remained to be drained, and in the northern part of Gilder Street in 1886-87 at a cost respectively of Rs. 3756.4.0 and Rs. 2938.13.1. Lists of the streets in which sewers were laid or sanctioned between 1880 and 1887 will be found in the Administration Report for 1887-88, pages 208-211. It is not necessary, I think, to copy them here. I have now reviewed the work of sewerage up to about 1890, detailing the history of—
The main sewer ;
The branch ovoid sewers in—
(a.) Clerk Road,
(b.) Ripon Road,
(c.) Hornby Road to the Mint,
(d.) Queen's Road,
(e.) Kamatipura ;
The branch main pipe sewers in—
(a.) De Lisle Road,
(b.) Arthur Road,
(c.) Marine Lines ;
The pipe sewers in —
(a.) The 1st drainage section,
(b.) Kamatipura,
(c.) Agripada,
(d.) The Fort,
(e) Queen's Road and Girgaum drainage district ;
The outfall sewer at Love Grove ;
The new pumping machinery at Love Grove.
THE DRAINAGE AND SEWERAGE OF BOMBAY.	59
The sewers in the Elphinstone Estate and Mody Bay were laid by the Port Trust. They were constructed gradually as roads were made or extended. They are all on the " Dual System," i.e., they carry storm water as well as sewage. There are two large drains in Frere and Argyle Roads, segmental in form, and measuring 2 feet 3 inches by 3 feet 3 inches at their commencement, increasing to 4 feet by 5 feet at the end. With them are connected drains in the cross streets which nearly all measure 2 feet 3 inches by 3 feet 3 inches. The main outfall was at Carnac Bunder, and there was a smaller outfall south of it. In 1883 the Frere Road drain was connected with the municipal main sewer at the foot of Carnac Road Bridge, and the outfall to Carnac Bunder closed by a sluice, and the sewage of the Port Trust Estate was thenceforth taken—except during heavy rain —to Love Grove. The drains on the Port Trust Estate, especially the Frere Road drain, give great trouble from the accumulation of silt which is the consequence of their faulty construction, and there is no doubt that the whole district must be sewered anew.
Before taking up the further extension of the sewerage system I must as shortly as possible refer to three topics which commanded much attention during the years I have been considering. These are—
Disposal of night-soil,
House connections,
Surface drainage.
32. The question how to dispose of the night-soil Disposal of
night-soil.
of the city was one with which the Commission of 1869 was supposed to deal. They took a good deal of evidence but shrank from any positive expression of opinion of their own. They quoted with apparent approval the
60	THE DRAINAGE AND SEWERAGE OF tOMBAY.
witnesses who were in favour of the continuous discharge of night-soil into the harbour, and therefore opposed to water carriage by sewers; they hinted that they agreed with these views, but they evaded positive acquiescence in any opinion. They quoted Dr. Lumsdaine, Health Officer, and afterwards Sanitary Commissioner, who was " aware of no objection " to the whole night-soil of the city going into the harbour in a lump at Carnac Bunder, and then they quoted Mr. T. Ormiston, who, called to bless, seemed to curse by saying that though he was less afraid of polluting the harbour than he used to be, he still considered the Carnac Bunder outfall "a great nuisance, there was no doubt of that." Though the Commission however seems to have been optimistic on the subject, it was not long before it disturbed the repose of the Municipality. In 1873 Mr. Pedder wrote that Government * had decided, not before it was time, that the harbour must no longer be polluted with 150 tons of night-soil daily. He added that if the town was not sewered on the water carriage system the only alternative was a railway to Coorla, and it was as likely as not that the loading station would be as great a nuisance as Carnac Bunder. Mr. T. Ormiston had a plan for establishing depots in various parts of the city at each of which a night-soil extractor should work, separating the solids and reducing the soil to a fluid condition, the solids to be taken away with the street sweepings to Coorla, and the fluids to be discharged through earthenware pipes to a central station on the Flats, there to be either pumped to Coorla or to the sea at Love Grove, or to be deodorised and converted into manure by being mixed with ashes, charcoal, or dry earth. Mr. Pedder
* Government had given notice to the Corporation on 19th December, 1872, to abate the nuisance in six months.
THE DRAINAGE AND SEWERAGE OF BOMBAY.	61
and Mr. Walton demonstrated the impracticability of this plan, and advocated the construction of sewers, and the discharge of the night-soil into them from various depots so arranged as to admit of the total abolition of night-soil carts. It has to be borne in mind that, besides the nuisance to the harbour, all the discussions on this subject in these times centred round two main points-one, the desirability of getting rid of night-soil carts altogether ; the other, the question whether night-soil might safely be added to the contents of sewers. The difficulty of the whole subject is set forth with much force in a letter dated 31st October, 1873, from the Commissioner, Mr. Pedder, to the Port Trustees, who had. requested Government, " with a certain want of consideration," as the Commissioner remarked, to compel the Municipality to " cease from using the depOt." The folly and levity of this demand were scathingly exposed, and the letter may usefully be studied as an exposition of the difficulties which surrounded the disposal of the question equally complete with that written by Mr. 011ivant on 19th March, 1884. The latter, however, was not it must be remembered in so difficult a position as Mr. Pedder, for sewers capable of the water carriage of night-soil had been constructed in the meantime. In May, 1874, Mr. Ravenscroft, who was acting for Mr. Pedder, proposed as a palliative that the discharge pipe at Carnac Bunder should be extended to a point 10 feet below low-water spring tides. On this proposal the sanitary commissioner, Mr. Lumsdaine, wrote in June, 1874, a letter to the Town Council in which, while advocating the shifting of the central depot from Carnac Bunder to Kamatipura, and the discharge of the night-soil to Love Grove, he gave an interesting sketch of the history of the harbour outfall. In 1851, when the eastern
92	THE DRAINAGE AND SEWERAGE OF BOMBAY.
foreshore was little more than " one long reach of crannied rocks and fetid mud," some forty-four cartloads of night-soil used each day to be emptied on to it at Chinch Bander, there to stay till the tide washed it away. Later on two iron tanks were placed there at Mr. Cony-beare's suggestion. This was about midway between the Musjid and Elphinstone over-bridges. The capacity of both tanks was only 5048 cubic feet, and the Frere Road now " crosses the very spot where the discharge pipe ended." In 1866 the advancing reclamation had closed in upon the depot, and the Elphinstone Company offered. to bear a share in the cost of removal. A slaughterhouse then stood alongside the Carnac over-bridge. It was removed and the night-soil depot erected on the site, discharging through a 15-inch pipe on the sea face of Carnac Bunder, in 1874, a quantity not far short of 150 tons of solid and liquid excrement. Abominable as this nuisance was felt to be it was much easier to complain of it than to find a remedy. The most complete one would of course have been the establishment of a system of water-closets, as this would have struck at the evil at its very root, and swept away not only the nuisances of night-soil depOts at Carnac Bunder and elsewhere, but the whole abomination of night-soil carts and bhangis' baskets passing through the streets. Apart, however, from the apprehensions which were felt and strongly urged, that the addition of night-soil to sewage would dangerously alter the character of the sewage, a fatal obstacle was the want of a sufficient water supply Nowadays both these objections have disappeared. Whatever may be thought with regard to the first, the night-soil of the city is cast into the sewers, but in the worst possible way, that is, at few points and in great masses ; and as to the second it can no longer be maintained with
THE DRAINAGE AND SEWERAGE OF BOMBAY.	63
any reason since Tansa has been added to Vehar and Tulsi. It is the difficulty with regard to house connections which now stands in the way, so that though we have solved most of the problems of twenty years ago, our streets are still polluted with the bhangi, the basket, and the night-soil and cesspool carts, to the disgust and abhorrence of every civilised visitor. I have already referred to the experimental " privies " (should be water-closets) which were erected in Kamatipura when it was sewered by Mr. Walton, but we have hardly got any further in this direction, though in the cases of new houses with detached privies surrounded by an air space the old objections as to the risk of sewer gas filtering through the house connections into dwelling-rooms can no longer be sustained. Twenty years ago, however, and for many years later than that, water-closets were out of the question, and in the absence of properly constructed sewers it seems to me that the discharge of night-soil into the harbour was really the only way of disposing of it until sewers could be constructed. One of the main objects of the sewerage scheme was to get rid of the Carnac Bunder dep6t, but this, as Mr. Walton wrote on 26th July, 1882, depended on the adoption of the " whole scheme " including privy connections. But the existence of sewers even without house connections placed the Municipality in a far better position than it had been without them ; the means of carrying away the night-soil to the Warli outfall had been brought into existence ; and the only remaining difficulty was how to get it into the sewers. Ten years after Mr. Pedder, Mr. Ravenscroft, and Mr. Lumsdaine had made the proposals I have referred to, pressure was again brought to bear on the Municipality by Government. In a letter to Government dated 19th March, 1884, Mr. 011ivant
64	THE DRAINAGE AND SEWERAGE OF BOMBAY.
summed up the question at great length. He said (para. 6) :—
" With a view of doing away with these causes of nuisance I will suppose that the pOsition which suggested itself to Government in 1876 is actually assumed now, and that a practical answer must be given to the question 'What should Government demand, and what should it do itself in the event of the demand not being complied with ? ' The following list will, I believe, comprise all possible answers :—
"(1) Order the new sewerage system to be proceeded with at once, and completed in the shortest possible time in all its details, including house drains and water-closet fittings, and meanwhile allow matters to rest as they are except so far as the present method of collecting and disposing of night-soil may gradually give way as the new system advances.
" (2) Order all the night-soil to be dropped into the new sewers, either as a temporary measure until water-closets are provided, or as a permanent measure in lieu of connecting the house-closets with the sewers.
" (3) Order all the night-soil, collected as at present, to be put in barges and sent out to sea, either as a temporary or permanent measure.
" (4) Order all the night-soil under similar conditions and circumstances to be carried to Kurla, and there deposited.
" (5) Introduce a pail system, and establish factories in convenient places for the conversion of night-soil into poudrette to be sold as manure.
" (6) Introduce a pneumatic system such as that of Liernur or Berlier for the carriage of night-soil either to a poudrette factory or to an outfall, as may be determined.
" (7) One more answer, and this the most popular, I
THE DRAINAGE AND SEWERAGE OF BOMBAY.	65
might have added, viz., Do nothing, and let things go on quietly for the present, or for ever, just as they are. But this answer I assume to be inadmissible."
Each of the 'alternatives stated above was very fully discussed ; and the whole letter, which will be found on the
records of the Corporation, deserves careful study. The Government resolution upon it does not contain much except denunciation of the Carnac Bunder nuisance, and that refuge of the destitute in ideas—the offer to appoint a " small commission to inquire and advise on the subject." The Corporation on 18th June passed a resolution, which may I think be spoken of as a distinctly " dilatory proposition," calling on the Commissioner for plans and estimates for
(a.) An iron main from Carnac Bunder to Warli for the discharge of night-soil under water pressure ;
(b.) The same, with depots also at Girgaum and Kamatipura ;
(c.) Night-soil depOts at Sewn and Mazagon as well as Carnac Bunder, and steam barges for carrying the night-soil to sea.
The third paragraph embodied a suggestion which Government had made.
I do not know whether these plans and estimates were ever prepared or not, but in the meantime a little proposition had been carried at the Town Council which solved the whole question. This was on 21st May, and (the name is worthy of being recorded) Lieutenant-Colonel Merewether was the proposer, and it was to the effect that Rs. 8540 should be paid from surplus cash balance " for the cost of diverting the sewage outfall from Carnac Bunder to World." The idea simply was to discharge the night-soil into the new sewers at Carnac Bunder and elsewhere. Neither the executive engineer (Mr. Walton),
60	THE DRAINAGE AND SEWERAGE OF BOMBAY.
nor the health officer (Dr. Weir), quite liked the proposal —the objections indeed are obvious—but both thought it better to try it than to do nothing at all. The resolution of the Town Council came before the Corporation on 27th August, escorted by a petition against it signed by over five hundred " householders and ratepayers." It was moved by Lieutenant-Colonel Merewether, and though three amendments were proposed to it, it was carried by nearly three to one, and there was at once an end both of the ancient pollution of the harbour, and of the bugbear about putting night-soil into sewers.
From that time to the present the same system has prevailed ; but the number of depots has been increased, and the largest is now at Kamatipura. This has been frequently complained of, and the Corporation were engaged in considering how it might best be got rid of when I left India in 1895. It may be taken for certain that in this system of night-soil disposal there is no finality. As houses spread, as wealth increases, as a higher standard of civilisation and refinement begins to assert itself, the local nuisances caused by night-soil depots will be no longer tolerated : they may be shifted here and there, and they may be greatly improved upon, but I apprehend that in a city like Bombay the Corporation will never cease to be troubled with this unsavoury question until the privy is everywhere connected with the sewer on the water-carriage system, huts and small houses which cannot be provided with the necessary conveniences being served by public latrines.
There has been one change of detail at Carnac Bunder which deserves a reference, and that is the substitution of fresh water for sea water for flushing purposes. Up to two or three years ago a small pumping plant was kept at the Carnac Bunder depOt and sea water was pumped up
THE . DRAINAGE AND SEWERAGE OF BOMBAY.	67
into the sewer. The best opinion nowadays seems to be opposed to the introduction of sea water into sewers, and when the Tansa supply was received it became possible to dismantle and dispose of the machinery at this depot, and to flush the sewer with fresh water from the mains.
33. I have already described (pars. 19 and 20) the system of house connections devised by Mr. Walton and advocated by Mr. Pedder, which was introduced into Sonapur, and have also (par. 28) discussed the erection of house connections in Kamatipura. The wish and intention of the Corporation were to construct house connections at municipal expense throughout the whole of the 1st Drainage Section. In October, 1882, a special committee of the Corporation, which had been appointed to consider the subject, reported (a) that the Municipality should pay the entire cost of house connections both inside and outside the house, and keep all fittings outside the four walls of the house in good order thereafter ; (b) that the cost of connections should not be paid in the case of houses to be built thereafter ; but that they should be maintained by the Corporation as in the case of existing houses.
There were two dissentients who thought that the cost of connections should be paid by the owners.
When the matter came before the Corporation on 3rd November, 1882, the following resolution was carried by twenty-two votes against four :—
" That the Municipality undertake to pay for the entire cost of house connections both inside and outside the house, and to maintain all fittings outside the four walls of the house in good order thereafter ; provided that this undertaking on the part of the Municipality shall not apply to houses to be built hereafter except so far as the maintenance is concerned, and that it shall not apply,
F2
House connections.
68	THE DRAINAGE AND SEWERAGE OF BOMBAY.
either as regards construction or maintenance, to any property on which the consolidated rate is not charged in full (except in the case of charitable and religious institutions)."
Though this resolution is worded generally, and though I have no report of the debate to which to refer, yet I apprehend it was not intended to apply except in the 1st Drainage Section. My reason for saying this is that the discussion arose on the report of a committee appointed to consider whether the Municipality should or should not pay the cost of house connections in the 1st Drainage Section.
The dissentient minutes to the committee's report are worth reading, at least the first one (Mr. Gostling's) is—the second merely urges the " great cost to the Municipality " as a ground of objection ; but Mr. Gostling goes into the subject with a good deal of detail and seems to seize what appears to me to be the true issue—that it is not the business of the Municipality to pay for works which are not of public and general benefit, that the connections to a house are for the individual benefit of the owner or occupier, and not for the benefit of the public, and ought not therefore to be paid for at the public expense any more than the tiles or eaves or any other appurtenance of the house. As he also observes with a good deal of point, " No one is thankful for what is given for nothing ; but each man will try to keep in good order what he has had to pay for."
About a year afterwards the Corporation sanctioned the following sums in pursuance of their policy :—
Rs.
1st Drainage Section house connections without
privy fittings .	.	.	.	.	6,25,561
	Automatic flushers at heads of gullies	.	6,100
	Provision for shaft ventilators, say .	.	50,000
6,81,661
THE DRAINAGE AND SEWERAGE OF BOMBAY.	69
On 20th February, 1884, the Commissioner reported that the result of the usual invitation for tenders for the above work was that the office estimate was greatly exceeded, both as regards the 1st Drainage Section and Kamatipura. I have already (para. 23) mentioned how Kamatipura was dealt with, so I will here confine myself to the 1st Drainage Section. The Town Council then referred the matter to the Corporation, and that body appointed a committee to consider what bearing the facts now reported should have upon their resolution to pay for the house connections. This committee appears ultimately, from resignations and other causes, to have become reduced to four members, of whom two signed a report that the cost would probably be less than the Commissioner had supposed, and that, therefore, the principles already adopted were not affected ; and the other two members signed separate minutes of dissent, one on the ground that the cost was ruinous, the other on the ground that all house connections were objectionable. The latter minute contained a singular instance of the inventive powers of prejudice. The writer commented on " the emanation from the stately chimneys " (meaning the ventilating shafts) " on Queen's Road," in ignorance of the facts that at the date of his minute—lst, no sewage had yet been admitted into the Queen's Road sewer ; 2nd, that the connections between the sewer and the ventilating shafts had not yet been made !
The Corporation on 5th September, 1885, adopted the opinion that the principles formerly enunciated by them were not affected by anything that had since transpired.
Tenders were called for anew but were still so high that the Commissioner recommended the direct purchase from England of the cast-iron and zinc fittings at a cost of Rs. 1,53,853, and that the work should be proceeded
70	THE DRAINAGE AND SEWERAGE OF 'BOMBAY.
with departmentally in one sub-section—Khetwadi. This was agreed to by the Town Council on 10th March, 1886, and on the 24th of the same month the Commissioner handed in the following statement of the cost of construction in Khetwadi :—
Rs.
Ironwork	.	.	.	11,329
Stoneware (pipes from houses to sewers)	24.732
Cement .	.	1,800
37,861
Construction .	.	. 19,899
Contingencies five per cent .	.	2,897
Establishment ten per cent .	5,776
66,433
In the Executive Engineer's Administration Report for 1887-88, it is stated that the work had been all but completed, at a cost of Rs. 72,490, the excess being due to increased quantities consequent on the erection of new buildings and nahanis. A small additional grant was made, and the work was reported as complete in the following year.
House connection work in the 1st Drainage Section now stopped for some years. Plans and estimates for the work in Bhooleshwar were submitted to the commissioner in November, 1888, but were not approved by him. Doubts and suspicions were at this time prevalent as to the sewerage system of the city. These culminated in the visit of Mr. Baldwin Latham, to which I have yet to refer ; but they account for the partial suspension of activity. It was, however, only partial, for in October, 1888, the Corporation sanctioned a sum of Rs. 248,642 for " house sullage connections in that portion of the Agripada Drainage Section which is already provided with sewers ; " and, as I have already mentioned, a very large sum was being expended on a similar object
THE DRAINAGE AND SEWERAGE OF BOMBAY.	71
in the Queen's Road and Girgaum Drainage Section. In the 1st Drainage Section, however, nothing more was done until January, 1892, though tenders for the completion of the work had been persistently called for on several occasions, but in that month the Corporation resolved that the grant already made should be utilised immediately. Work was then vigorously resumed by the drainage department, but only to be stopped in a few months. An alarmist report from the health officer, as to the misuse and partial unsuitability of the form of house connections, backed by some influentially-signed petitions, culminated in a special meeting of the Corporation on 30th June, 1892, at which it was resolved to appoint a committee to consider the subject and to stay the work in the meantime. This committee, after sitting for more than two years, made a report which gave rise to a good deal of controversy. Just before leaving India in April, 1895, I placed my views upon record, and whether anything has since been done, and how the question now stands, I have no knowledge.
I have described, with the assistance of a drawing, the plan of house connections which was designed by Mr. Walton in 1873, approved by Mr. Pedder, and tentatively introduced. Members of the Corporation are of course familiar with its later and fuller development, as exemplified in Khetwadi. I use the word development advisedly, for, great as the difference may seem between the older and the later plan, the one is the direct consequence of the other. The principle of a catch-pipe, which in 1873 was of iron and placed along the wall, was maintained by the earthenware pipe under the gully, which was the same thing in a different place. When placed under the gully, flushing tanks were added ; it was partly the difficulty of flushing which induced
72	THE DRAINAGE AND SEWERAGE OF BOMBAY.
Mr. Walton to lower their position. The further main principle of disconnection at all practicable points was adhered to throughout. The Corporation are familiar with the model which was constructed and placed before them when the subject of connections in the 1st Drainage Section was under their consideration, and which is now to be found, I believe, in the office room of the executive engineer. Independent of the breaks of connection at the wall syphon and the gully trap, there are three distinct water seals between the street sewer and the house. In the plan of 1873 there were also two " breaks of joint," one between the downtake pipe and catch-basin, the other between the catch-pipe and tank ; and there were what were equivalent to two syphons and a flaptrap between the street sewer and the catch-pipe—one a regular syphon on the house drain, one a flaptrap in the same, and the third a diaphragm in the tank which practically made a syphon of it. Thus the later system may be described with truth as growing out of the earlier, and doubtless there are yet many improvements to be made.
Surface	34. The exclusion of storm waters from the sewers,
drainage	which was one of the principal improvements proposed by the sewerage system, necessarily involved the question how to dispose of them otherwise. It will be remembered that Major Tulloch's proposition, adopted by Messrs. Pedder and Walton, was that as the new sewers were constructed, the old ones should be utilised exclusively for the carriage and discharge of storm waters, which might, of course, be discharged into the sea, without causing any nuisance, at whatever point they were naturally led to by the fall of the land. The subject of surface drainage commanded a great deal of attention between 1876 and 1881, but not much was done. The
THE DRAINAGE AND SEWERAGE OF BOMBAY.	73
Love Grove sluices were widened to 150 feet at a cost of Rs. 1,53,723, and it was originally proposed to construct a storm-water drain from Khetwadi Back Road to Back Bay, and another from Forjett Road to Back Bay, and to improve the natural drainage channels on the Flats. These proposals were afterwards abandoned, though there were funds available for them, as the Corporation had sanctioned six lakhs for surface drainage. But the opinion began to prevail that the storm waters of Khetwadi had better be taken towards Warli ; and the importance of raising the level of Khetwadi itself, by filling in. the roads and compounds, began to be realised. The consulting engineer, Mr. Forde, moreover, expressed the opinion in February, 1881, that a large portion, at all events, of the Flats, instead of being filled in (as was in contemplation), should be kept at its natural level, or even deepened, as a retaining basin or sink for storm waters in periods of heavy rainfall.
On 11th July, 1881, Mx. Walton addressed to the Commissioner a very complete and able report on the question of intercepting the storm waters from Khetwadi. He pointed out, as Mr. Forde had done, that the Flats being the natural sink of the city, they must not be filled beyond a certain point, or the " low-lying portions of the town would have to perform the duty now undertaken by the Flats, and the result would be serious and prolonged floodings in the town." Mr. Walton's proposals, which were estimated to cost over eleven lakhs, may be shortly stated to have comprised :
(a.) An intercepting drain from Malabar Hill to Maha-luxmi ;
(b.) A storage reservoir at \1ahaluxmi twenty-nine acres in extent behind the Vellard ;
74	THE DRAINAGE AND SEWERAGE OF BOMBAY.
(c.) The raising of roads and compounds in Khetwadi ;
(d.) Three branch drains from Khetwadi to the Falkland Road drain ;
(e.) An intercepting drain from Pydhowni to Bellasis Road ;
(1) A storage reservoir on the Flats or between the Vellard, Clerk Road and Haines Road ;
The project was carefully criticised by Mr. Forde, who specially dwelt on the importance of reserving a much larger area for a reservoir, and the plan was modified so as to include only one reservoir, and that to be 136 acres in extent. On the 1st February, 1 8 82, the Commissioner, Mr. °avant, addressed a report to the Town Council in which the scheme was described with all the improvements or modifications which inquiry had proved to be advisable. It was summed up in his 26th paragraph as follows :—
Rs.
1. Cost of raising level of roads in Khetwadi	25,565
2.	9/	„ private compounds in Khetwadi	38,580
3.	9, three branch drains in Khetwadi	.	23,515
4.	91 raising levels of manholes in sewers .	1,452
5.	vy intercepting drain from Gowalia tank
to Khamballa Hill	.	.	.	2,72,694
C.	99 connecting Aitken's low-level sewer
with new main sewer .	.	.	3,100
7.	99 intercepting drain from Pydhowni to
Bellasis Road .	.	.	3,27,428
8.	9/ enlarging old open main drain .	.	1,06,091
9.	99 diverting Tulsi pipe line .	.	32,688
10.	99 filling up Haines Road culvert	.	36
11.	v, constructing reservoir on the Flats .	1,98,804
12.	9/ providing new storm-water entrances	24,177
10,54,130
Fifteen per cent. for establishment and contingencies 1,58,120
12,12,250
THE DRAINAGE AND SEWERAGE OF BOMBAY.	75
On 10th February, 1882, the scheme was approved by the Town Council, and on 22nd March it was sanctioned by the Corporation. A balance of Rs: 4,01,100 from the six lakhs surface drainage loan remained unexpended, and an application to Government for a loan for the further sum of Rs. 8,11,250 was authorised.
It may be mentioned that for the purpose of the reservoir it was intended to ask Government to place at the disposal of the Municipality not only the 136 acres already referred to, but all the remaining portion of the Flats between Clerk and Haines Roads. It was also intended that during the dry season sea water should be admitted to keep it filled. (Commr.'s No. 662 of 1 Feb., 1882, para. 21. H. 0.'s Administration Report for 1882, para. 5.)
The first portion of the surface drainage scheme to be completed was the raising of the roads and compounds in Khetwadi, which was finished in June, 1882, at a cost of Rs. 53,420, showing a saving of more than Rs. 12,000 on the sanctioned estimate. The three branch drains in Khetwadi were completed at about the same time at a cost of Rs. 30,628, which was considerably more than the estimate.
The " Gowalia tank, Tardeo and Arthur Road drain," that is, the drain constructed to intercept the storm waters from Malabar and Khamballa Hills, was practically ready in 1884-85 before the setting in of the rains of 1884, and was found effective in that year, and it was finally completed in the ensuing season at a cost of Rs. 1,62,479.
The works connected with widening and deepening the old main drain, including the culvert and sluices at Clerk Road, were also completed in 1885-86 at a cost of Rs. 71,603.
" The Pydhowni, Parel Road (Bhendy Bazar) and
16	THE DRAINAGE AND SEWERAGE OF BOMBAY.
Bellasis road" intercepting drain was completed for use before the rains of 1886. It cost Rs. 2,99,607, or practically three lakhs. The Commissioner in his report for 1885-86 commented on the beneficial result of the surface drainage works, and of the raising of the ground in Khetwadi and Kamatipura (between Rs. 6000 and Es. 7000 were spent in Kamatipura in drains and piping, though I have not separately referred to it) ; but pointed out that the scheme was still incomplete, as it only dealt with a specified limited area, and because it could not be made perfect so far as freedom from nuisance was concerned till all sewage was diverted into sewers. He made also the following observation, of the truth of which anyone who has had much to do with civic administration must be thoroughly convinced : " Whatever good may have been accomplished by this or any other municipal improvement weighs but little in the balance of popular judgment so long as an undoubted evil remains impressing itself upon the perception " anywhere else.
The storm-water reservoir on the Flats was completed before, and filled in, the rains of 1886. Its cost was Es. 1,95,632. The 1Tellard embankment was also improved at a cost of Es. 23,905.
This part of the scheme (the reservoir) occasioned a good deal of controversy while it was under construction. Into the details of this I do not think it necessary to go, particularly as it seems to me that private interests had a good deal to do with the objections that were taken. Those who care to study the details of an obsolete dispute will find the papers printed (or at least some if not all of them) with the resolution of the Corporation passed on 29th October, 1895, which impartially recorded them all. I should not refer to the matter at all, but that one bit of criticism which has turned out to be sound was--I think
THE DRAINAGE AND SEWERAGE OF BOMBAY.	77
accidentally—stumbled on, and that was that the proposed admission of sea water in the dry season would turn out to be a mistake. The reason why, which Mr. Baldwin Latham first pointed out, was not understood at all by the critic—this is, that any sea water let in through the Love Grove sluices is bound to be impregnated with sewage from the outfall close at hand, so that a lake of pure sea water supplied from that source is an impossibility. After the rains of 1890 the water from the reservoir was completely run out and the reservoir allowed to dry. This was found to be a decided improvement, and has been done in subsequent years.
In March, 1888, the Corporation sanctioned a small extension of the surface drainage scheme, providing for storm-water drains in Parel Road as far as Shepherd Road, and in a part of Ripon Road. These works were completed in 1889-90 at a cost of Rs. 32,110.
35. I have already remarked that with the progress of Marine Lines
sewer.
the sewerage works they became the subject of a good Government
committee.
deal of criticism. In 1889 a Government committee was appointed to inquire into various nuisances in the Marine Lines, and the pipe sewer that had been laid there was examined; and though probably it was but to a very small extent responsible for the nuisance—and even that mostly due to the surface ventilation and charcoal screens which had been insisted on by Government in opposition to the municipal authorities—yet its condition was not altogether satisfactory.. It had been interfered with by the roots of trees, and it was liable to be obstructed and the free flow of sewage impeded whenever sewage did not run clear in the Queen's Road ovoid sewer. The sanitary commissioner, who was one of the committee, wrote a " sensational report " (Executive Engineer's Administration Report, 1887-90) on the sewerage of the city generally, laying
78	THE DRAINAGE AND SEWERAGE OF BOMBAY.
particular stress on the fact that pipe sewers had not been laid on a concrete foundation, which, on the authority of Dr. Parks, he thought ought always to be done. Without dwelling further on the details of this controversy than to observe that Government did not consider this general indictment sustainable, it will suffice to add that having regard to rumours in circulation and to doubts as to the Love Grove outfall, the Commissioner deemed it advisable to obtain the assistance of a drainage engineer of eminence, and the Corporation concurring with him, the services of Mr. Baldwin Latham were engaged, and he arrived in India in January, 1890. The report of this very eminent engineer was completed on 13th March, 1890, but was not printed and at the disposal of the Corporation till some weeks later. I may here remark in passing that he completely disposed of the fallacy that there was anything wrong with the laying of the pipe sewers of Bombay, pointing out, what had been urged by the municipal engineers and ought to have been obvious to any person of understanding, that concrete or other artificial foundations are only required where the natural foundation is deficient (putting aside special cases such as those of drains laid at great depths), and that to add an artificial bedding of concrete, or any other material, where the natural foundation is perfect, is a mere foolish waste of money.
Mr. Baldwin	36. Mr. Baldwin Latham commenced his report by a
Latham's
report.	very full consideration of the meteorology of Bombay, of
the geology and configuration of the island, and of the tidal currents, and from premisses therefrom deduced argued with great force that the sewage outfall should be at the southern extremity of the island at Colaba, " at a point entirely clear of the coast line ; " that the sewage should there be discharged into a covered reservoir divided
THE DRAINAGE AND SEWERAGE OF BOMBAY.	79
into compartments, and capable of retaining one-half of the full volume of the sewage, and thence discharged for four hours on each ebb tide. Mr. Latham was not opposed to the application of sewage to land in inland cities and towns, but preferred a sea outfall for a town on the coast. Moreover, he was of opinion that there was not in the vicinity of Bombay any sufficient area of land for the treatment of the sewage of the city ; and, quoting very high authorities on the subject, he condemned the popular idea that it was wasting valuable manureal products to turn sewage into the sea ; on the contrary, it was questionable whether more was not got out of sewage indirectly by turning it into the sea than by applying it to land.
This was the part of Mr. Latham's report which attracted most attention, and subsequently a Government commission was appointed to consider the question. The conclusion come to was that an outfall at the Prongs (and it was not thought safe to place it short of this point), with a new main sewer leading to it, would be so enormously expensive as to be impracticable. Mr. Latham was good enough to appear and give evidence before this commission, and he then expressed the view that failing the southern outfall which he recommended, the existing outfall at Love Grove was on the whole the best that could have been selected.
Examining the ovoid and pipe sewers which had been constructed since 1877, Mr. Latham approved of them all, but pointed out that owing to the incompleteness of the sewerage system—owing to which, on the one hand, large districts, which should supply their sewage to the sewers, were still unconnected with them ; and on the other, numberless ill-constructed drains, carrying both sewage and storm water, and liable to be filled with road detritus and the contents of gullies, were connected with the
80	THE DRAINAGE AND SEWERAGE OF BOMBAY.
sewers, and carried matters into them which ought to have been kept out—the sewers were grossly misused, and many of them silted up with decaying matters. The remedy for this was to keep them to their legitimate use, to connect with them sewage conduits only, and to reserve the old drains, which admitted everything, to their proper use of carrying storm waters only. At the same time Mr. Latham did not fail to notice the inadequacy of the pumping power at Love Grove, for it was clear that, unless the exit for the sewage could be kept clear by the pumps, the flow in the whole system of sewers must be checked, the sewage ponded back, and solid matters deposited. The whole machinery at Love Grove was condemned as obsolete and inefficient, and indeed, in a later communication addressed to the executive engineer, Mr. Latham went so far as to say that it would pay the Municipality to give it away and purchase new engines and pumps of a more modern pattern. Without dwelling on Mr. Latham's recommendations and commentaries on the important subjects of sewer flushing, sewer ventilation, house connections, privy fittings, etc., with regard to all of which he gave valuable advice, I wish to refer for a moment to the subject of sectional sewerage, a term and an idea which first came up in his report. The question for consideration was, " What method should be adopted for raising the sewage in all the unsewered low-level districts, or districts the sewage of which would not gravitate into the existing sewers . . . ." Mr. Latham proposed to effect this object by " transmitting power from one central station to a number of points within the district where the sewage should be automatically pumped by means of water at high pressure." From a central station, which might be at Love Grove, water under pressure might be transmitted to pumps placed in any section where sewage
THE DRAINAGE AND SEWERAGE OF BOMBAY.	81
required lifting, such sections being of course determined by the levels as those in which sewage could not be removed by gravitation. There might be one set, or a dozen sets, of pumps in any given area or section. This was a mere matter of convenience and detail, but the system would diminish the size, depth, and cost of sewers, and the sewers could have better falls.
Members of the Corporation have mostly heard the term " sectional sewerage " used in connection with the Shone system, and I dare say, and indeed I know, they have occasionally been bewildered by the use of the terms gravitation area or system, and sectional area or system, and as regards the latter I am not surprised at it, for the application of the term sectional has been entirely arbitrary. It has been, and I suppose still is, constantly used by the municipal executive to designate an area or " section " in which the levels do not permit of drainage by gravitation into the main sewer leading to Love Grove, and in which therefore sewage must be lifted locally up to a height which will enable it to fall into that main sewer (or the system conducting to it) by gravitation. " Sectional sewerage," as we use the term in Bombay, simply means " local pumping " or " lifting," and there is no real difference between Mr. Latham's system and Mr. Shone's except in the way in which it is lifted. Mr. Latham uses water under pressure, and Mr. Shone uses air under pressure ; in the former case the power, or water under pressure, is transmitted to and actuates a pump or pumps ; in the latter the power, or air under pressure, is transmitted to a specially designed piece of machinery called an ejector, placed at the lowest point of the section or subsection which it serves, and into which the sewage of that section or subsection runs by gravita, tion. When the ejector is full, by an automatic arrange-,
0
82	THE DRAINAGE AND SEWERAGE OF BOMBAY.
ment as ingenious as it is simple, the compressed air is introduced, and forces the contents up into a high-level sewer, generally an iron main, which discharges it at the desired point.
There may be a dozen or more sets of pumps, or a dozen or more ejectors in any given section, or only one set of each ; this is a mere matter of detail and convenience. In Colaba there are five "ejector stations," as they are called ; that is to say, there are five separate points within the Colaba sewerage district to which, on a consideration of levels, length and size of pipes, and so on, the engineers thought it advisable to let the sewage from the houses flow by gravitation, and at each of these points it is lifted by air under pressure into the iron discharge main which projects the sewage into the head of the Fort system or the Mayo Road sewer, as the case may be. There are thus in Colaba, as it were, five little cups or basins which receive the sewage, and at the bottom of each of them the ejector station is placed, that is to say, the mechanical appliance which raises the sewage from the bottom of the cup and projects it into the iron delivery main ; but not the power. The power, that is the compressed air which actuates the ejector or mechanical appliance referred to, comes in pipes from the central station near the Port Trust coal depot, where it is generated by steam engines. And this is always the case. Whether one power-generating and transmitting station were chosen for the whole city and placed at Love Grove, or whether there were as many such stations as there are sections where local lifting is needed, or whether some sections have their own power-generating machinery (e.g., Colaba), and all the others are dependent on a central one (as Mr. Smith proposed for Parel, Mazagon, etc.) at Love Grove, makes no difference. These are modifications of detail, but the principle is unaffected. There must be
THE DRAINAGE AND SEWERAGE OF BOMBAY.	83
some station or stations where power (whether air under pressure or water under pressure) is generated by steam engines, or gas engines, or power-generating engines of some sort or other, and from it, or from them, the power is transmitted to the point or points where sewage has to be lifted. And it must be borne in mind that there is no reason—unless there are reasons of economy—why this system should be confined to localities only where the levels render the lifting of sewage a mechanical necessity. Many districts from which it is possible to carry sewage by gravitation to the desired point might be usefully and wisely supplied with local lifting machinery by means of which any degree of fall might be obtained, and consequently any degree of rapidity in the removal of sewage.
Having in Bombay constructed at great cost a large main sewer which carries its contents by gravitation to a point many feet below the level of the earth at Love Grove, from which it is lifted by pumps and thrown into the sea ; and the areas, districts, or sections of the city in which local lifting of sewage is necessary, being all at great distances from the Love Grove outfall ; it has never been suggested by the municipal executive that anything else should be done in what I will now call the " sectional districts " than to lift the sewage into the main gravitation system. And yet a moment's reflection will show that this must result in a waste of power, for having raised the sewage, or being able to raise it, to a level from which we could discharge it straight into the sea, we, instead of this, drop it into a gravitation system, so that it rolls down hill again, and has once more to be lifted at Love Grove. The system at Colaba is past praying for, and, indeed, it is so far from Love Grove that probably the cost of the extra lifting power there is less than the, cost of an iron delivery main all the way ; but as regards the
o2
84	THE DRAINAGE AND SEWERAGE OF BOMBAY.
rest of the city, it is worth considering whether an iron delivery main to Love Grove outfall would not be the cheapest as well as in other respects the best expedient. Mr. Smith may probably have noticed this point in his report on the sewerage of the districts referred to, which I sent on to the Corporation with a detailed description of the Shone system some months, if I remember, before I left India. But, as Mr. Smith's report and my own letter have not been included among the documents supplied to me, I can only speak conjecturally.
Sewerage or	37. It was in Mr. Latham's report that the idea of Colaba,
Uniarkhari, sectional sewerage was first brought before the Corpora-. etc.
tion, but the municipal engineers had already considered the subject, and in consultation with Mr. Ault, Mr. Shone's partner, plans and estimates had been prepared for the sewerage of Colaba, and laid before the Commissioner. I will proceed to deal with this, and with other sewerage works carried out during the period that I held the office of Commissioner, before adverting to Mr. Latham's scheme for surface drainage, which formed a very important part of his report.
Proposals for the sewerage of Colaba, that is, of the whole district south of the Fort system of sewers, were sent in in 1889. They were on the ordinary gravitating principle, with the addition of a pumping station to lift the sewage into the system to the north, for the levels did not admit of the connection being made without. Experience at Love Grove caused apprehension whether a sewage-pumping station anywhere in Colaba would be tolerated, and alternative plans and estimates were accordingly prepared for the application of the Shone or pneumatic system. The whole project was then laid aside for some time pending consideration of Mr. Latham's report, and when it was ultimately laid before the Corporation early in 1892, doubts were raised as to whether a Colaba
THE DRAINAGE AND SEWERAGE OF BOMBAY.	85
outfall for the Colaba sewerage would not be advisable. A good deal of discussion took place upon this, but -on Government vetoing the suggestion, the idea had to be abandoned. In the meantime the working of the Shone system at Rangoon had been reported on to Government by their sanitary engineer, Mr. Doig, who spoke of it very highly. A revised estimate for the sewerage of Colaba on that system was accordingly submitted to the Corporation, and received their sanction on 9th March, 1893. It amounted to Rs. 7,09,608. This work was still in progress when I left India, and I do not kncow whether it is yet complete. The area to be sewered is divided into five sections, in each of which a pair of Shone's ejectors is placed, and to these ejectors the pipe sewers of each particular section gravitate. At the ejectors the sewage will be lifted by compressed air and driven through an iron _main, called the " sealed sewage main," into a receptacle in the north of the Colaba sewerage district, from which it will flow by gravitation partly into the Fort system and so to the Mint Road ovoid sewer, and partly into the Mayo Road sewer leading to the Queen's Road ovoid sewer. The compressed air by which the ejectors are actuated is driven into them from an air-compressing station near the coal depot on Port Trust land. It was at this point that it was proposed to place the sewage-pumping station had the Shone system not been decided on. But I hope it is understood that what is now being built, or what has now probably been built there, is not a station containing machinery by which sewage is pumped, but a station containing machinery by which air is compressed, and driven through small iron mains to the five sets of ejectors. It is at the ejectors that the sewage is lifted by the force of the air under pressure which is automatically admitted into them as
86	THE DRAINAGE AND SEWERAGE OF BOMBAY.
soon as they are full, and by which the sewage in them is driven through an outlet valve into the " sealed sewage main." Under this arrangement the risk of nuisance inseparable from a sewage-pumping station is no longer to be apprehended. This departure into a novel system was primarily due, it must be understood, to the necessity for lifting the sewerage of Colaba coupled with the fear that direct pumping of it would cause a nuisance. I had not heard when I left Bombay any proposal to apply the Shone system to districts from which the sewage could be taken by gravitation to the main sewer.
Accordingly, the next proposal for the extension of sewerage to an unsewered district of the city—viz., Umarkhadi—contained no special feature of a novel character. The Umarkhadi drainage district fills up the gap between the first drainage section on the east, .south and west, and on the north the Jail, Babula Tank, and Khara Talao Roads. The estimate, including Rs. 41,632 for a branch ovoid sewer from Parel Road along Erskine Road and Kavasji Patel Tank Road to the main sewer in Babula Tank Road, amounted to Rs. 3,47,464. It was sanctioned by the Corporation on 16th October, 1893, and the work was in progress when I left India.
I ought perhaps to have mentioned that a small extension of sewerage was effected in 1892-93 by the construction of a sewer in Parel Village Main Road and Government House Road (sanctioned estimate, Rs. 77,603), with the necessary ventilating shafts and branch pipe sewers in Parel Village. In August, 1894, a further sum of Rs. 81,620 was sanctioned by the Corporation for the completion of pipe sewerage in that portion of the Parel drainage district from which sewerage by gravitation to the main sewer was practicable.
The Corporation will feel that it is impossible for me in
THE DRAINAGE AND SEWERAGE OF BOMBAY.	87
such a report as this to refer separately to every small extension, often only a few hundred feet, of a single pipe sewer at a time, but that I can only deal with the system at large. I have thus not made any special reference to the pipe sewer in Bellasis Road (sanctioned 31st October, 1888), the pipe sewer to Suparibag (11th May, 1891), the pipe sewer in Curry Road (15th May, 1893), and others which might be named.
I find from the later, administration reports, which I have been able to obtain at the British Museum, that the house connections in the Agripada district were completed in 1892-93 at a cost of Rs. 2,00,353, and that new sewers in Connaught and Sussex Roads were completed in 1894-95 at a cost of Rs. 24,759.
In 1894-95 plans and estimates were laid before the Corporation for a large number of works, of which I give a summary below :—
Rs
	Mazagon district—gravitation .	.	.	3,32,661
	Raising sewage in Queen's Road sewer	.	2,00,256
	Malabar and Khamballa Hills—gravitation	1,57,026
Machinery for the sewerage on the sectional
system of the Parel, Mazagon, old race-
course, Malabar and Khamballa Hills,
Elphinstone reclamation, Fergusson Road,
	and Chinchpokli drainage districts .	.	8,32,932
Mazagon district—sectional	.	.	.	3,24,280
Parel	91	7,	•	•	•	5,30,054
Fergusson Road and Chinchpokli district
gravitation	.	.	.	.	.	81,617
Fergusson Road and Chinchpokli district—
sectional .	. . .	.	. 2,96,988
	Malabar and Khamballa Hills—sectional .	6,54,865
	Old racecourse—gravitation .	.	.	40,815
t,	9, sectional	. . . 1,71,193
Elphinstone reclamation, including Frere
Road from Carnac Bunder to Fort Street
---sectional	.	.	.	3,36,605
39,59,292
88	THE DRAINAGE AND SEWERAGE OF BOMBAY.
From what has been already said I trust the above classification will be free from confusion , I mean, that the definition of one and the same district as both " gravitation " and " sectional " will be understood. It means, of course, that part of a district can be drained by gravitation to the main sewer, but that another part does not admit of it, and in the latter the sewage must be lifted.
In January, 1895, the Corporation sanctioned
Rs. 8,24,330 for—	„
Rs.
(a.) The sewerage of Mazagon—gravitation .	.	.	3,32,661
(b.) Raising sewage in the Queen's Road sewer	.	.	2,00,256
(e.) Sewerage of Mazagon and Khamballa Hills—gravitation 1,57,026
(d.) Sewerage of Fergusson Road and Chinchpokli by gravitation, including pipe sewers in Fergusson and
Bapty Roads .	.	.	.	.	.	93,572
(e.) Sewerage of the old racecourse—gravitation .	.	40,815
New engines and pumps at Love Grove.	The extension of sewerage to the other districts enumerated above which cannot be sewered by gravitation can be but a question of time. They must be sewered, and the sewage must be lifted. Starting with these two postulates, there seems no valid reason for delay.
	I must now revert to the important subject of surface drainage, though before doing so I must complete so far as I can the history of the Love Grove pumping station.
	38. I have related (par. 25) how in 1883 four new engines and pumps were placed in a new pumping station at Love Grove, which was some little distance north of the original old one. For two or three years they seem to have done fairly well, and though considerable sums were expended in repairs and alterations, which is probably inevitable so long as Bombay sewage preserves its present characteristics, they may be said to have fulfilled expectations. I find, however, from the annual reports of the executive engineer that their large consumption of coal
THE DRAINAGE AND SEWERAGE OF BOMBAY.	89
soon attracted attention. In 1886 the superintendent of workshops was directed to examine and report on the machinery every month, and in the following year the engine-man at the station was supplied with the means of effecting all ordinary repairs on the spot. Though nominally subordinate to the superintendent of workshops the engine-man resented all interference and supervision and made things so unpleasant for the superintendent that the latter, without orders, ceased to pay his periodical visits and submit his monthly reports. At the same time the engines were grossly neglected by the engine-man in charge, till at last their working became so unsatisfactory that an independent examination by a mechanical engineer of eminence was deemed necessary, and was arranged for. His report, submitted in January, 1889, disclosed a state of affairs equally dangerous and disgraceful. The engines and pumps were in a state of most serious disrepair, and the expenditure of a large sum upon them was inevitable. The inquiry further resulted in the dismissal of the engine-man in charge, and the appointment of a new man, while the superintendent of workshops was for the future held personally responsible for the condition of the machinery. During the rains of 1889 it became necessary to supplement the partially disabled machinery by additional power, and two centrifugal pumps, one of 10 inches and one of 18 inches, were added to the pumping plant. The two together were stated to be about equal in power to one of the engines and pumps in existence. The original machinery was repaired, but it had come to be understood by this time that it was not of a good type for its purpose. As was stated subsequently in the report of a committee of the Corporation, " they never were good engines, and do not work up to their expected capacity." Mr. Baldwin
90	THE DRAINAGE AND SEWERAGE OF BOMBAY.
Latham's condemnation of them was the final blow, and in 1891 the Commissioner proposed the purchase of entirely new engines and pumps of a more suitable pattern. The coal consumption of the old engines, amounting to nearly 11 pounds per developed horse-power per hour, was the strongest possible argument in favour of Mr. Latham's dictum that it would pay the Municipality to give the engines away and erect new machinery. The Municipality had at that time evidence before them of what could be done by suitable pumping machinery, for the engines and pumps erected at the Pawai Waterworks, and first used in 1890, consumed only 2 • 66 pounds per developed horse-power per hour—that is to say, they did the work at less than one-fourth the expenditure of coal. The Commissioner strongly urged that a specified type of machinery should be selected, and purchased from particular makers, instead of inviting tenders in the open market, and he recommended those known as the Worthington pumps. These views were concurred in, and grants amounting altogether to Rs. 5,00,948 were made between September, 1891, and July, 1893, to cover the cost not only of new engines and pumps but also of a new engine and boiler house. The guaranteed power of each of the four sets of new engines and pumps was 15,000,000 gallons a day, or 60,000,000 gallons collectively, and the coal consumption was guaranteed not to exceed 4 pounds per developed horse-power per hour. The actual cost of the entire plant, including buildings, was Rs. 4,88,453 . 12 . 7. That the new plant has justified the expenditure on it I infer from the language used by my successor in the Commissioner's Administration Report for 1894-95, in which he says that " the engines and pumps have fully answered the expectations formed of them." The following comparative statement, taken from the Executive
THE DRAINAGE AND SEWERAGE OP BOMBAY.	91
Engineer's Administration Report for the same year, is interesting :—
Mr. Marzban adds ; " practically all the sewage of the city has been daily pumped ; the engines have worked up to almost their full efficiency, and are, as regards their duty, in as efficient a state as when first put down." I am afraid, however, that until some method has been devised for intercepting the silt, which so largely enters into Bombay sewage, there must be a heavy annual bill for repairs. It may be advisable to construct silt-pits at the pumping station itself, but it seems to me it would be better to intercept the silt at the points where it now enters the sewers, and I cannot believe but that this may be done. It must be remembered that there are two main causes for it. One is the large use of sand and grit by the people for cleaning metal pots and pans. This, unless intercepted at the house, must enter the sewer, however complete the separation of sewers from storm-water drains. But the other, and, I suspect, the chief cause, is the contributions of road detritus and other extraneous matters which the sewers receive from the old drains with which they are everywhere connected during the dry weather and very largely connected even during the rains. These old drains, besides conveying storm waters in addition to sewage, are open and unprotected at numberless points to receive, and do receive, every imaginable sweeping from
Average No.
of Gallons
pumped per
Diem.
Average
Height of
Sewage.
Average Con-
sumption of Coal
per Diem.
........II......
Old engines . . . New engines .
23,306,240 11.27 feet
37,796,759 5.43 „
(32 per	(51.8 per
cent. more)	cent. less)
15 tons 2 cwt.
8 tons 2 cwt.
(46.3 per
cent. less)
.
92	TEE DRAINAGE AND SEWERAGE OF BOMBAY.
Surface drainage.
the surfaces of the streets. Though theoretically they are disconnected from the new sewers during the rains, yet in practice they remain connected with them as long as the capacity of the latter is adequate to receive their contents, it being deemed a less evil to let the new sewers carry what they were never intended for than to let sewage be carried direct into the sea by the outfalls from the old drains while it can possibly be avoided. Take, for instance, the Queen's Road sewer. It was supposed to be an intercepting sewer during the dry season only, but, as a matter of fact, it is always allowed to intercept the old drains during the monsoon, in order to obviate the nuisance of the old outfalls into Back Bay, except when the quantity of storm water becomes so great as to threaten to overwhelm it. So it is with other branch drains. And thus, altogether independent of the grit and sand from the nahani and the back yard, we have an immense contribution of silt, partly concreting in the beds of sewers and checking their flow, and partly pouring down to the pumps at Love Grove, to damage them and cause expense. Of course the remedy for this is the absolute and perpetual severance of all the old drains and all channels for storm water from the new sewerage system, and this can only be accomplished when the latter is complete.
39. In his report of 1890, Mr. Baldwin Latham laid down in a very clear and able manner the principles which should govern the local authorities in dealing with surface
waters. He pointed out in the first place that all flood waters from high lands, or lands above high-water mark
of the sea, should be intercepted by catch-water channels and conveyed direct to the sea without coming on to the lands below that level. Now in the works for surface drainage in Bombay, so far as they had been carried out,
THE DRAINAGE AND SEWERAGE OF BOMBAY.	93
the flood waters from the high lands were conveyed direct to the low levels (main-drain or storm-water reservoir), and thus high and low lands were " linked together, to the great detriment of the low parts of the district, for it can make little difference to these low districts that the floods, instead of flowing on them on one side, back up on to them on another side." This last point, about the " backing up " of a district by floods on one side of it, had perhaps never been properly understood ; but Mr. Latham argued that though the surface of a low-lying district, such as Khetwadi, might be kept clear of floods by the construction of storm drains carrying them to the storm-water reservoir, yet it was none the better off for this if by the existence of the reservoir the underground waters of the district were impeded from flowing off, and thus the subsoil water level was raised. He regarded this as the inevitable effect of the storm-water reservoir, and he also suspected that the filling of the Flats with kachra might have some effect in ponding back the subsoil waters of the district behind them unless the Flats were well drained. It would thus appear that though Khetwadi has been relieved from the surface nuisance of the floods from Malabar, Khamballa, and Nowrojee Hills, and other high lands, yet that, as these floods are impounded on the Flats, they shut up the subsoil waters of Khetwadi and are in that way perhaps more dangerous than they were before.
The relief of that part of the island which is below high-water mark from its own floods is a sufficiently serious matter, and it ought not to be complicated and made more difficult by allowing floods from the high lands, which might be intercepted and carried direct to the sea, to add to the volume. They might easily be intercepted by " proper works for this purpose."
94	THE DRAINAGE AND SEWERAGE OF BOMBAY.
For dealing with waters on low lands, Mr. Latham. laid down the second general principle, that the " low-water level of the sea should be brought the greatest possible distance inland ; " that is to say, low-water drainage channels leading to the sluices of discharge should be constructed and brought inland as far as possible, such channels to be " deep and capacious, sufficiently so to carry off all flood waters or retain a moderate flood ; and excessive flood waters shall be stored in washes at either side of the flood channel, with arrangements for admittingb these waters into the washes when, and not until, the flood channel is full, and for discharging the water into the channel so that it shall be retained in the washes for the shortest possible time, and. then only the purest water overflowing the small embankment shall be admitted in the washes. These washes for at least eight months in the year would become cultivated land."
Mr. Latham calculated that the Love Grove sluices had to deal with the drainage of 3240 acres, those at Warli with the drainage of 2308 acres, and those at Dharavi with the drainage of 1321 acres. Like Major Tulloch, he declared that they were none of them of " anything like sufficient capacity," and he did not think that the sluices at Warli or at Dharavi were, in their present positions, of much use. He doubted whether sluices at Dharavi would be of much use under any circumstances, and he advised additional sluices at Love
THE DRAINAGE AND SEWERAGE OF BOMBAY.	95
Grove and Warli, or preferably an entirely new set of sluices at Warli only, to which the drainage channels should lead. Mr. Latham's idea was that this new storm-water outfall should be placed right on the other (west) side of Warli Point, discharging into the open sea, as it was a serious defect in both the Dharavi and Warli outlets, and to some extent also at the Love Grove outlet, that the discharge was into a bay or creek.
This project for dealing with the storm-waters of the island, complete and perfect as it was, was gigantic in constructive requirements and expense far too much so for adoption, except slowly and piecemeal. But there is no reason why the gradual progress which ways and means admit of should not be steadily directed to the ends prescribed.
The executive engineer, Mr. Rienzi Walton, worked out Mr. Latham's scheme in detail, and submitted his report with estimates to the commissioner on 3rd December, 1891. It was accompanied by a map. As far as I can recollect, the report and estimates have never been sent on to the Corporation, and when I say that the latter amounted to over 111 lakhs of rupees, the reason will be understood. I may, however, usefully give a short sketch of it in this place.
Mr. Walton divided his project into two branhes, one for high-level storm-water drains, the other for low-level
storm-water channels.	The high-level, drains were
designed, according to Mr. Latham's requirements, to carry off a rainfall of two inches per hour, and were all covered drains to be laid under roads. Open channels were impossible as they could not have been constructed in roads, and to have acquired land for them would have outweighed the difference in cost of construction. These drains were all designed so as to carry off the storm
96	THE DRAINAGE AND SEWERAGE OF BOMBAY.
water on all land above high-water mark, i.e., 88.42 T.H.D., by the most direct route of which the levels admitted, to the sea. They were estimated to cost, with a 15 per cent. allowance for contingencies, Rs. 61,37,123. It is superfluous to describe them in detail, nor was there anything so special in their design or arrangement as to need any detailed description.
For the low-level waters Mr. Walton proposed to construct two main channels. Of these one, described as channel No. 1, was to start 200 feet from the north side of Clerk Road, and to run alongside the open main drain (which was to be connected with it by waterways) nearly to Love Grove, then to turn to the north-east, pass under Haines Road, and then follow the general course of the existing channel to the Warli sluices; but before reaching the latter it was to turn to the westward and open on to the rocky ground at the foot of Warli Hill, where sluices were to be constructed. The storm-water reservoir was to be partly filled with material excavated from the channel, and so graded as to have a slope of 1 in 1000 to the existing open main drain, the area of the reservoir serving as the " washes " indicated by Mr. Latham. The sluices at Warli were to consist of twelve openings each 20 feet wide, giving a waterway equal in width to the channe1,4and were to be crossed by swing bridges, which were also to be constructed on the various roads traversed by the channel. It was possible that a trade might be established along the channel, and in that case a quay or bunder would be required at Clerk Road.
The second channel, or channel No. 2, was to take the flood waters now gravitating in the direction of the Dharavi sluices, which Mr. Walton agreed with Mr. Latham in thinking should be abandoned. It was to start 320 feet south of Dharavi Road and to run in a
THE DRAINAGE AND SEWERAGE OF BOMBAY.	97
general south-west course till it had cleared the south corner of Mahim Woods, when it was to bend to the westward till it joined channel No. 1 at a point about 900 feet south of the existing Warli sluices.
I cannot very well define the catchment basins of these two main channels without a map, but may say generally that they were bounded on the north by the Dharavi Road ; on the south by Girgaum Back Road and Bhooleshwar Road ; on the west by Malabar, Kliam-balla, and Warli Hills (the toes of the two former, the top ridge of the latter), the sea and the south and west edge of Mahim Woods; on the east by Parel Road, Bellasis Junction Road, and Clare Road, then Parel Road again to a point a little south of Government House, then by a line going south-east across Parel Tank Road to Brae Hill, and then again by a line running irregularly north through Naigaum, Wadala, Matunga, and Sion to a point just south-west of Sion Fort, when it turned west again to Dharavi Road.
The rainfall provided for was (a) two inches per hour over the whole catchment area, and (b) the rainfall which might require to be stored during the high-level period of the tide. The total storage capacity of the channels and open main drain was estimated to be 28,649,400 cubic feet, and as the total required was 73,529,820 cubit feet, it followed that the " washes " needed to be of a capacity equal to 44,879,880 cubic feet, which the existing storm-water reservoir could supply. No other " washes " besides the reservoir were therefore provided. The sills of the sluices were to be at 68-00 T.H.D., and a flood level of 84.00 T.H.D. was allowed for. It followed that all lands within the catchment area must be raised to 84.00 T.H.D., and Mr. Walton assumed that the proprietors of ground below that level would be required to raise it.
98	THE DRAINAGE AND SEWERAGE OF BOMBAY.
The surface level of the channels was taken at 84 .00 T.H.D.; and the surface level of mean low water of the sea being 7600 T.H.D., this would give a surface fall of 8 feet. The bottom of the channels being fixed at 68 • 00 T.H.D., it followed that at mean low water there would be a depth of 8 feet even at the head of the channels.
The cost of this second part of the scheme, which I may mention included eleven bridges, was estimated at R,s. 49,85,864, making with the estimate for high-level drains a gross total of Rs. 1,11,22,987.
If instead of two inches an hourly rainfall of only one inch were to be provided for, it was roughly estimated that the cost of the whole scheme would be reduced to about 86 lakhs of rupees.
Such is, in its main outlines, Mr. Latham's project as worked out by Mr. Walton. Whether the low-water channels will ever be made is perhaps doubtful ; at the same time I have no doubt that in all drain construction for storm waters attention will be paid to the importance of interception, so that the low levels of the city shall be less and less burdened with waters from the high levels ; and the point on which Mr. Latham so strongly insisted will not be lost sight of, that the storm-water reservoir if it does good in one way does harm in another, and should always be emptied as soon as possible. Care must be taken not to confuse the proposed use of it as a " wash " or " washes " under Mr. Walton's plans, during periods of excessive flooding, with its present use as a " sink " or receptacle for all storm waters at all times. In the former case it would be relieved of water in the course of a tide or two, in the latter it must continue to hold water till it is relieved at low-water springs, through sluices which are not large enough, by a long and slow process. Practically it must remain a lake throughout
THE DRAINAGE AND SEWERAGE OF BOMBAY.	99
every monsoon, and thus " back up " the underground waters in Khetwadi, Kamatipura, etc.
Since the date of Mr. Walton's report a considerable number of small works in connection with surface drainage has been undertaken, including storm-water drains under some of the new roads north of the By culla Club, storm-water drains in Connaught and Sussex Roads, the same in Kala Chowki Road and in Chamar Lane near Parel Road, in Chanii\ Road to Grant Road, in Love Lane, in the north of Hornby Road, in Paidhoni, from Hornby Road to Bazar Gate Street, and a very important one in Cruikshank Road from the Fitzgerald Lamp to Hornby Road ; but as, with the exception of one or two of the smaller lengths, they were either not completed, or the accounts relating to them were not wound up at the time I left, I am unable to say what they cost.
40. I trust that I have fairly answered the first four paragraphs of the resolution of the Corporation on which this report is based. The first few words of the 5th paragraph, as to the " parts of Bombay which are not drained," can be answered by a process of exhaustion, but I regret that I am not able to report as I could wish on the manner " in which it is proposed to deal with them, whether by gravitation, lifting or other means." I could have answered a part of this question with considerable fulness if Mr. Smith's report on the drainage of the east and north-east of the island, which was sent on with a long and careful summary by myself, had been included among the documents sent to me. But they have been omitted, and I have only a general recollection of their contents. I may observe, however, with regard to the question how any proposed extension of the sewerage of the city will connect with the existing systems, that nothing has been proposed which will fail to do so.
General remarks.
100 THE DRAINAGE AND SEWERAGE OF BOMBAY.
Whether a gravitation system has been proposed for any particular area, or local lifting has been proposed (sectional system), in each case the sewers, whether of the ovoid pattern, or sealed iron mains, are led to the Love Grove pumping station or to the main sewer. What remains to be done can be gathered from the general map at the end of this report ; and may be said to be principally the sewerage of the districts in which local lifting of sewage is required. Of these the most urgent is perhaps Mazagon, that part of it which lies between the harbour and the gravitation district of the same name. But the re-sewerage on modern lines of the Port Trust estate is also of extreme importance, and the Corporation are further aware how strongly the health officer feels as to the necessity of draining Malabar and Khamballa Hills. I need scarcely add that no time ought to be lost in putting in such sewers as are required in the streets west of the Agripada sewerage district. The question of the best method to be adopted for that lifting of the sewage which is inevitable in nearly all these districts must be grappled with sooner or later, and ought to be grappled with at once. It is no justifiable excuse for delay to make to citizens who are being poisoned in the air they breathe and the ground they live on by festering pools of sewage which there are no means of carrying off, that it is difficult to decide between this or the other system. The Corporation exist, they are elected and appointed, to decide such questions, and ought to be ready to move before they are forced to move, as forced they must be in the end. The question, moreover, is not a difficult one. My own opinion upon it is already on record, and I need not repeat it here. There is doubtless a good deal of money to be spent, hut this cannot be avoided in any case.
41. I must not conclude without expressing my thanks
MEI DRAINAGE AND SEWERAGE OF BOMBAY. 101
to Mr. M. C. Marzban, C.I.E., M.I.C.E., Executive Engineer to the Municipality, and Mr. C. C. James, A.M.I.C.E., drainage engineer, for the valuable assistance I have received from them in the way of documents, maps, and explanations, and to Mr. Rienzi Walton, M.I.C.E., late executive engineer, for the many points in which his long experience and intimate knowledge have enabled him to aid me.
II. A. ACWORTH, C.I.E., I.C.S. (retired), Late Municipal Commissioner for the city of Bombay.
LONDON:
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