By Isle of Wight Observer
The Isle of Wight Observer published on 8th October 1853 had the following article about the potential contamination of drinking water.
DRAINAGE AND WATER.
Some time ago we asserted that Tub-well, which supplies hundreds of poor people with water, had become contaminated from the fact that the hill from which the water is obtained is made a burial ground, and is also full of cesspits of the most abominable kind, which, from the nature of the soil, drain into the well. We suggested that the only remedy was to bring in water from a distance.
Mr. Commissioner Perkis, however, cut this notion short, by the assertion,- dig a hole anywhere; there’s plenty a-water; and
“He knew what’s what, and that’s as high
As metaphysic wit can fly.”
The commissioners at the present time are putting in a sewer through this hill to drain the burial ground and the cesspits, and there is not the slightest doubt but that when it is completed, the whole of the water of the hill will find its way into that sewer.
What then is to become of the poor? Has property no duties as well as rights? It is true there is a talk of a company being formed, but we can see no evidence of earnest endeavour being made to bring it to a successful issue.