Report of a committee on a plan for cleansing the drains of Black Town.

Date:
1856
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report of a committee on a plan for cleansing the drains of Black Town. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    when it is executed, the free use of granite for various purposes, especially the roads and above all, for the Port; all these improvements might be carried on under the greatest advantages. I merely sketch out this scheme to show that the basis of vast improve- ments is within our reach, and that wo should at once, whether works were carried further or not, have an immediate and vast advantage. It is quite evi- dent that one of the great mistakes under which these questions have been hitherto carried on was, the supposition, that water was much more expensive than it really is. In the Carnatic generally we can preserve water by catching it in Tanks at 1,000 cubic yards per annum, for every Eupee of Capital expend- ed or taking the interest of capital at 5 per cent, the price is 10 Piee per 1,000 cubic yards. To raise this quantity of water by Bullock labor 12 feet costs about 3 Eupees or 60 times as much, and by steam power the same height would take about f Eupee or 15 times as much; so that were it deter- mined to wash out Black Town with Sea water, it would still be advisable to bring in fresh water as a motive power to raise it in preference to steam. A 6 horse Engine would cost 3,000 Eupees when put up, and to work it for 16 hours a day, would cost 4,000 Eupees a year, the interest of 80,000 Eupees ( equal with the cost of the Engine itself to a capital of 83,000 Eupees for rais- ing 10,000 yards a day or 3i Millions per annum, while the same power mio-ht be obtained by a water wheel worked by water stored in a Tank and brought to the spot for a much less sum. The sanitary effects of such a scheme would of course be beyond calcula- tion of money, but there would also be obviously large direct returns in money. If only 10 Millions cubic yards were used for irrigation and sold at 1 Eupee per 1,000 cubic yards, |dof what water much inferior for irrigation raised from the hundreds of wells in Madras now costs, it would fetch 10,000 Eupees a year the Interest of 2 Lacs; several thousand Eupees a year would be saved in the carriage of stone for groins, &c, if only the same quantity continues to be used as hitherto ; a large sum would be saved in the road repairs, and if necessary, a toll might be levied on the navigation ; these are besides the great profit to the public by cheap water and cheap carriage. I trust it is thus shewn that— Ist.-The various improvements now required in Madras are so intimately connected, that it is entirely a mistake to plan one without considering the whole. 2d.—That it is a mistake to lay out so large a sum of money (73 000 Eu- pees is now sanctioned) in any works which are not fundamental unless it is quite clear that they will form a necessary part of what is ultimately to be done