Abstract
IN June, 1918, a Committee, with Sir John Snell as chairman, was appointed by the Board of Trade and the Ministry of Reconstruction “to examine and report upon the water-power resources of the United Kingdom and the extent to which they can be made available for industrial purposes.” The Committee issued an Interim Report early in 1919, directing attention to nine large sources of water-power inScotland which could be developed at once so as to supply electrical energy at economic rates.It was no doubt while investigating the conditions of water-power that the complexity of the general problem of the use of natural water was appreciated by the Committee, forinOctober, 1919, the termsof reference were extended by the Board of Trade to “consider what steps should be taken to ensurethatthewaterresourcesofthecountry are properly conserved and fully and systematically utilised for all purposes.” At the same time the Committee was strengthened by the addition of two officials of the Ministry of Health and three eminent water engineers.The enlarged Committee has issued a Report1 dealing with the specialsubject of the new reference. It should beremembered thatwaterfor potable supplies j must be delivered in a high state of purity, so that it cannot be collected from the surface in urban or agricultural areas. Water subject to organic impurities may, indeed, be renderedpotable by chemical and bacteriological means, as Sir Alexander Houston has demonstrated on the citizens of Greater London. But many commu-I nities demand a natural and untreated supply, and this, in default of deep wells, can be obtained only from uncultivated moorlands, most of which in England and Wales have already been appropriated.
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The Control of Water Resources. Nature 105, 765–767 (1920). https://doi.org/10.1038/105765a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/105765a0