Annual medical report / East Africa Protectorate.

  • East Africa Protectorate. Medical Department.
Date:
[1915]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Annual medical report / East Africa Protectorate. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    analytical examinations were made, which confirmed the opinion previously expressed that a process of filtration and storage prior to distribution was essential. On the Gth May a Board composed of military and civil officers assembled at Kisumu and submitted recommendations affecting the water supply and its distribution to ships of the Uganda Marine. These included the erection of a 10,000-gallon sterilising plant on shore. The recurrence of enteric cases on board the vessels has been surprisingly small since then ; the permanent water supply to Kisumu has not as yet been initiated. There is increasing evidence to show that the Nairobi water supply is deficient in quantity, and no undertaking can be given by the railwa}^ authorities, who control it, that the present supply can be guaranteed to essential points such as the Native Location, New Quarantine Camp, or other areas where development is in evidence. At Kismayu, where the greatest difficulty has long been experienced in supplying the resident European population with potable water, hitherto in the dry season entirely dependent on camel transport for a distance of some ten miles from the origin of supply, a small distillation plant has been erected ; and some of the more seriously infected wells have been closed. Others have been covered to prevent the breeding of mosquitoes. The well water, on which the native population entirely depends, is contaminated and quite unsatisfactory. On the Northern Frontier, where an outbreak of cholera was reported in the beginning of the year, investigations showed that this was in fact dysentery, traceable to contaminated water. Attention was directed to the safeguarding of the water supplies, periodic cleansing of wells, and the erection of sand filters. Keports received in November state that no further spread of the disease had occurred. DRAINAGE. In Nairobi some advance has been made in the drainage scheme, 1,141 yards of new masonry drains having been constructed. A new scheme mentioned last year for the drainage of those areas where such were deficient has been prepared and sanction obtained ; the question of connecting premises with the main drains now completed has aroused considerable local attention, as the utilization of this aid to sanitation appears to have evoked widely divergent views. As areas become settled, and what were a few years ago grazing lands are being rapidly converted into building estates, the need for a comprehensive drainage scheme, both for the removal of storm water and the carriage of sewage, becomes more insistent. The main drainage scheme for the whole town should be defined, and when the main channels are constructed it will be possible for private owners to properly adjust the details of similar undertakings on their own properties to the general plan. In other townships in the Protectorate the drainage is represented by open channels, with the earth drain predominating, and in the maintenance and care of these the work of the sanitary gangs under the control of the Health Officers has been of the greatest utility. The work in Nairobi, Kisumu and Mombasa has been well organised and sustained. A detailed statement is contained in Table IV. The gangs are daily employed in cleansing open drains, oiling stagnant water, keeping surface drains in a good state of repair, and levelling ground. Drains have been kept cleansed and repaired to the following extent:— Mombasa ... ... ... 20,917 yards Nairobi.* 60,950 „ Kisumu. 98,587 „