Government of Bengal Local Self Government: Report of the Drainage Outfall Committee

2. The terms of reference to the Committee are as follows :- To examine the proposals of the Calcutta Corporation for a drainage outfall as distinct from the scheme for the revision of the internal drainage and to report to Government :- (1) What ()tidal' in their opinion is the best solution of the problem; (2) Whether the sewage requires any form of treatment for diposal at such outfall; and [...] Dey evidently misunderstood the intetion of the Committee for he reported to the Corporation according to statements which have appeared in the press that the recommendtion in question "reveals either lack of appreciation or utter disregard of the fundamental principles of hydraulics" on the part of the mebers of the Committee in that it shows that they have failed to see that the clea [...] The lowered level of the water in the Town Head Cut would permit the restoration of the system of flushing the head cut with canal water thereby removing the.nuisance of the stagnant sewage in the channel. [...] Consequently no improvement in the insanitary condition of the Tangra area can be effected."(ii) The gradual silting of the Bidyadhari would continue with the result that the nuisance of the sewage would gradually creep further and further south rendering the banks of that river and its continuation the Matla more and more uninhabiable. [...] And the latter to produce such an effluent as might with safety be discharged into the river having regard to the place of discharge and the dilution." It is interesting to note that the float experiment carried out at the instigation of the Comittee indicate that sewage discharged at Akra on the last of the ebb tide might be carried as far up the river as Baranagar before the tide begins to