Report of the Medical Officer of Health on the public health and sanitary circumstances of Johannesburg.

  • Johannesburg (South Africa)
Date:
[1913]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report of the Medical Officer of Health on the public health and sanitary circumstances of Johannesburg. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    55/84 (page 43)
    It is hoped that these By-laws will he gazetted early in 1914, and that active and much-needed steps may then he possible in regard to the insanitary property in this town. SCAVENGING. This matter is fully dealt with in the Annual Report of the Manager of the Scavenging Branch (Mr. F. C. Gavin, M.R.C.V.S.), and the Medical Officer of Health has little to add to previous observations on this matter, except that he is strongly of opinion that services of this kind should, for general reasons of public health, be rendered with the highest degree of efficiency practicable, and at charges which, while fully covering outlay, do not become a source of considerable Municipal revenue. Street Sweeping. This is done in the night-time^ except during the wet season, when it is postponed to the early morning, so as to get the mud off the streets just before the day’s traffic commences. An average of 10,556 mule loads were removed by 102 Scotch carts each month. The expenditure under this head for 1912-13 was £23,643 5s. Id., but, subject to financial considerations, this service might with great advantage be considerably increased. House-Refuse Removal and Disposal. House-refuse is removed in petrol-driven motor lorries and two-wheeled open tipping carts. At each of the upper corners of each cart is fixed a ring, and for each cart a waterproof tarpaulin is supplied, which is secured to the rings. The Medical Officer of Health has more than once suggested the pro¬ vision of dust-carts with flap covers, to prevent the blowing about of rubbish, but the Manager of the Scavenging Department, after considering various types of covered dust-cart, prefers the tarpaulin arrangement, as it admits of the cart taking a larger load, and saves the considerable weight of a wooden cover. An average of 714 Scotch cart-loads per day of house-refuse was col¬ lected; some of it wras burnt at the destructors and some deposited at tips. A large tip was opened at the south-west corner of Milner Park, Vrededorp, on the 25th May, 1911, and, although the process of tipping rubbish there has been attended with unavoidable unpleasantness, the inhabitants of Vrededorp agreed to submit to it in view of the fact that a number of unsightly hollows would thus be filled up, and converted eventually into a recreation ground. Refuse-removal service was extended to Melrose, Rosebank, Parktown North, Parkwood and The Hill. Carcase Removal. 457 horses, mules, donkeys and foals, 2,297 dogs and 185 cattle, 1 turkey, 8 springbok and 2 buck carcases were removed, and either buried at the depositing sites or burned at the destructor. Destructors. During the year, the Burghersdorp Destructor was dismantled and re¬ modelled at a cost of approximately £20,000. It now consists of eight cells. Four additional cells were added to the Natal Spruit Destructor. At Norwood Destructor a regenerator was installed, a clinker-cooling chamber constructed, the tipping platform roofed in and provided with water- sprays, and the chimney raised 20 feet. Removal of Night Soil and Disinfection of Pails. The average number of pails removed per night for the twelve months ending 30th June, 1913, has been 18,497. Every pail, before being sent out, is washed, tested for leakage, dipped in boiling creosote in steamjacketed pans, and, after the surplus creosote has dripped off in such a way that it is collected and available for use again, is “nested ’’ with other pails and placed in the carts for distribution. M.O.H. 1912-13 Scavenging'. Street Sweeping. House Refuse Removal and Disposal. Carcase Removal. Destructors. Removal of Night. Soil Pails.