THE LONDON WATER-SUPPLY.
IT seems somewhat paradoxical that in a country like England, full of rivers and with a normally rainy climate, the question of the adequate supply of water should be assuming such large proportions. The paradox is partly to be explained by the fact that we have had for two or three years abnormally dry seasons, but also, and far more completely, by failure to provide for adequate storage. Just as so many of our railway stations and public offices are built on too small a scale, and conse- quently must be enlarged and repaired at intervals at great cost, so our arrangements for the adequate supply of water do not appear to be based on accurate calcula- tions as to the probable future demand. For good or for evil, England is a country of town populations, three- quarters of its inhabitants living in urban districts, and the plain fact of this steady concentration of peopli4 in towns has been scarcely taken into due considera- tion. Year after year Leicester suffered from water- famines, due simply to inadequate storage, while now the condition of things in London has reached a point where delay is no longer possible or safe. This condition of things is the justification of the action of the London County Council on Tuesday, when the Report of the Water Committee of the Council was unanimously adopted, after an amendment moved by Lord Onslow had been rejected by a majority of 101 to 15, the greater part of the Moderates deserting their leader in his opposition to a policy of immediate purchase. Without entering into details, it may be said that the proposals of the Water Committee, adopted by the Council, are to promote a Bill for the purchase by the Council of the undertakings of the eight Metropolitan companies by agreement, or, failing that, by compulsion, and to secure in additional supply from the watersheds of the Wye and wy in Wales.
Nobody ventured really to defend the existing state of things, by which about one-fourth of the population within the County Council area and a very large cumber outside are called on to suffer the discomforts and serious risks of a water-famine year after year. The area covered by the East London Water Com- pany is precisely the area in which, according to the last Census, the growth of population is greatest, and it has been abundantly proved that the Company cannot carry out its full obligations to the public. The real ques- tions which divided the dissentient Moderates from the Pro- gressives and their Moderate allies were three in number : (1) Whether a Bill should be promoted before the Report of the Balfour Commission; (2) whether the new supply should come from Wales or from the upper reaches of the Thames ; (3) whether the Council itself should own and work the water-supply of London, or whether some kind of Water Trust should be instituted. No doubt behind these dividing lines is the vital question of the terms on which purchase should be effected, but the ostensible grounds of difference are those we have mentioned. As to the question of the prompt action of the Council, there ought, we conceive, to be no difference of opinion among those who know the facts. Delay is fatal. Whenever the Balfour Commission may report—and we agree with Sir Arthur Arnold that if it does not report in time for legislation next Session, it will be a grave scandal— it is the duty of the Council, which is already in possession of all the facts, and whose engineer has been ioroved to be right in his diagnosis of the case, to act at once. Whether the abnormally dry weather is but a passing phenomenon, or whether it is likely to be repeated for a cycle of years, we do not know ; but we do know that London's suburban population is growing at such a rate that we have no right to trust to a chapter of climatic accidents in dealing with a necessary of life. In any event, the bringing of water from Wales to London will prove a long as well as a costly process, and the sooner it is begun the better. We must recollect, more- over, that if London delays, she may find all the possible sources of supply in Wales pre-empted. The urban population in South Wales itself grows almost as fast as that of London, as does the population in the towns of North-Western England, which naturally look to Wales for their future supply. Towns like these can obviously act with greater ease and promptitude than London, and they will forestall London if she delays much longer. The Balfour Commission has been very slow in its opera- tions, and the actual events which have taken place have constituted much more effective practical arguments for legislation than will the evidence that will be buried in the pages of the Report.
As to the second point, whether Wales or the Thames should furnish the new supply, the best expert opinion seems to decide that the Welsh supply would prove alike the purer and the more constant. The Thames supply is admittedly not so good in quality, and its abundance is dependent on the rainfall to a degree far greater than in Wales. While London is about this very big stroke of bu.s,iness, let the business be well done and the supply laid on a sure basis. If the present rate of progress in population continues, we must, as Mr. Dickinson said on Tuesday, estimate a daily allowance of six hundred million gallons before another half-century is over. London Las been living from hand to mouth in this matter of a tv. ater-supply, and she cannot afford to run the risks involved in such a policy any longer. Nearly all the great cities of Europe and America have been overhaul. ing their water-supply during the last few years. The visitor to dirty, unprogressive Naples finds an abundance of pure and sparkling water such as London does not know, and in nearly every German city an abundant and excellent supply has been secured. The same is true of Manchester, Glasgow, Bradford, and other large British towns ; it is London almost alone that lags behind, though its gigantic population needs a more, rather than a less, comprehensive and scientific solution of this problem. Even with a normal rainfall the water derived from the Thames would not be sufficient for the needs of Greater London, assuming the present rate of growth to be permanent.
As to the problem of ownership, we think there can be little question that the experience of modern cities favours municipal ownership and control of such a vital necessity as water. Even in the United States, where a pro. nounced individualism tends to permit private monopo- lists to revel in their spoils, the water-supply of such cities as New York and Boston is in the hands of the muni- cipalities, and nobody would dream of proposing reversion to private ownership. Figures show that public ownership is more efficient and economic, and the tendency now is to extend the domain of municipal ownership to other forms of city monopoly, as in the case of the new electric underground railway in New York, which, after a term of years, is to become city property. There is some hesita- tion on the Continent as to ownership by public bodies of certain forms of monopoly, as street transit, for example; but we think we are correct in saying that in nearly every city of Europe, from Vienna, with its splendid and un- paralleled water-supply, downwards, municipal ownership of water is the rule. That rule has not been adopted on any a priori ground, but as a matter of business, and the profits of the municipality derived from the supply of water as well as of gas prove that it is a good business investment. If small ancient towns of Italy and Spain could bring water by costly aqueducts, it is surely absurd to say that this huge capital of the British Empire can. not, with profit to her inhabitants, bring her water from Wales by similar methods, consolidate and organise the supply, and make money out of the transaction. She can certainly do it, and she will. It is not necessary or legitimate that such a transaction should involve unfairness to the present shareholders in the London companies, for a competent Arbitration Court pre- sided over, let us say, by some distinguished Judge, would take all figures into consideration, while Parliament, it may be predicted with certainty, would allow no sharp practice on the part of the County Council. But one piece of advice may be given to shareholders. The longer they delay their consent to a compromise, the harder from their point of view will the bargain be. Every consideration, in fact, calls for speedy settlement of this great social and economic question.
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