Scotland Water Supply

yes that morning i was walking down avon road and as i turned into the high street i saw a little crowd standing in front of the noticeboard a cow that i noticed board is often ominous but i didn't expect this it's a queer thing but the only time we think of water is when we haven't got any only then do we start to think of all the things it's used for it takes a crisis to make us realize how much is used by the cattle and for cleaning the equipment that brings the milk to the children yes it takes a crisis all right but why should there be a crisis there's plenty of water in scotland bubbling out of the springs in the burns in the lofts and in the great rivers that take millions and millions of gallons down to the sea yes it all seemed queer right enough why should we have to have notices like that about the place there must be some reason i decided to find out i went to see rob mckenzie there and then he was at home from his job at a big water works and knew all about the subject you see john water isn't as simple as that there's plenty of water in scotland for every possible lead and the glenns form wonderful catchment areas into which it runs down off the hills but it's no use up there it's got to be collected into reservoirs which are complicated and expensive to build and then lead through pipes through the filter beds and the control house and down into the town before it emerges at the turn of the tap but that's not the half of it most of the sources of water are high up in the hills pure bubbling water from the spring and as one source meets another they form a burn as it gets near a habitation it is a small river but when habitation comes this and these things mean disease where i work john we realize that we are responsible to the ratepayer for seeing that the water is always germ free water is a carrier of many diseases typhoid dysentery and others so we have a staff of chemists there who are constantly doing analytical tests of samples of the water i it takes patience that work when the plant is efficient few dangerous germs reach the laboratory but they have to be on the alert and they know it and then there are the two types of filter beds first the open slow action sand filters in these a bacteriological reaction gets rid of any impurities a thin film of millions of minute organisms forms on the surface of the sand these organisms feed on the impurities and consume them before the water has time to sink down through the sand under cover there is the rapid mechanical filtration plant which works much in the same way but in these the water is forced through at pressure out of these it runs into the tiled gully and from there into the covered reservoir the controls have to be continually supervised to ensure a constant pressure in spite of all these precautions a further purification is sometimes necessary in our place the water is chlorinated the chemical disinfectant is prepared in a tank and mr potter always in his bowler hat carefully controls the minute quantity that is added to the water as it goes gurgling down towards the consumer that's all very interesting rob but tell me why is it that in the towns they have the water led right into the house into the bathroom into the lavatories and sometimes into the bedrooms as well while we in the country still have to go outside for our water sometimes five minutes walk i'll show you oh and another thing rob why is it that they have to have all that paraphernalia to keep themselves healthy in the town while we don't need it here but you do need it but let me answer your first question first the trouble all started about 100 years ago around about that time small independent water undertakings were set up all over the country each was planned to deal only with its own little area very often the service consisted of a single tap for five or six houses water had to be fetched and carried under taken into the house in buckets no proper sewage system was constructed to take away the extra waste water created by this increase of supply only crude forms of filtration were carried out and the water undertakers were often part-time men who knew little of the finer points of the subject but as the villages expanded and the population increased so the demand for water increased but the small undertakings couldn't meet the demand and in many places these undertakings are the sole source of supply today that's why you don't have up-to-date taps and closets in each house because if you did there would be no water to run through them so you see john although the water has never affected you it does affect those people that aren't used to it that's why i said you do need a scientific system of purifying the water all right john there's more to it than just uh so that was the story that was the reason it all goes back a hundred years rob had said yes and without much progress since it seemed a pity with all these wonderful resources all the fine catchment areas as rob called them but we should be so backward if we could only get together and work out a scheme that could give us what we need if only the local authorities would put up a bit and the county and the government give a hand if someone would only do something but something has been done and things are beginning to move the secretary of state for scotland instructed his engineers to make a survey of the water resources of scotland with a view to seeing how these things might be distributed over the whole country and then a bill was passed giving effect to these proposals and making available a sum of six million three hundred and seventy five thousand pounds for rural areas in scotland but this bill was not enough local authorities in rural areas were encouraged to plan their water supply schemes on much wider and ambitious lines than had ever been attempted before and it soon became apparent that more money would have to be made available if the job was to be done properly down in london in parliament the whole question was debated again a new bill was introduced which increased the grant for local authorities in the scottish rural areas to 20 million pounds yes things are indeed now moving start have been made with schemes all over the country and some of the really big schemes are now underway here is the beginning of the new 440 million gallons reservoir in the lemon mere hills which is the solstice supply of the regional scheme for berkshire the old oil is changing and giving place to the new with careful sighting of houses in country areas so that each may link up with the new schemes and have an inside water supply and modern sanitary conveniences there is no reason why during the next few years the housewife in the country should not have as good a water supply inside her home as her sister in the large town you