Rural Water Supply Schemes Research Articles

British Food Journal Volume 68 Issue 8 1966

After a few years away from the countryside, a brief visit to some farms in the heart of England reveals a changed scene. Farming is obviously prosperous and there are now many more young men farming; because of better conditions, older men have been able to retire and hand over to the younger man who has often attended an agricultural college and shows it in the methods he employs, especially in milk production Nowadays there seems to be a surfeit of machines, a greater use of machine‐milking, sometimes with pipe‐systems to cooler and direct to churns, without manual effort from start to finish. The rural water supply schemes and electrification between the two wars have revolutionised farming and taken the drudgery out of milk production. The farm kitchen is a revelation and the farmer's wife, young, strong, efficient, attractive and fashionable, surrounded with every electrical domestic appliance devised by the ingenuity of man, is as much changed as the farmer himself.

THE ANGLESEY COUNTY WATER‐SCHEME

SUMMARYAn interesting description of this scheme was given by Mr. W. H. Austin, B.Sc. (Eng.), County Water Engineer, Llangefni, Anglesey.In his introductory remarks the speaker stressed the important and steadily growing part that dairy farming plays in Anglesey's economy. In the 10‐year period from 1938 milk production in Anglesey increased more than fourfold and is now about six million gallons per annum.The aim of the County Water Scheme is to make supplies of piped water available in all parts of the country. By 1940 piped water supplies had been provided for most of the urban areas, but little had been done in respect of the rural districts, which is not surprising and more or less in line with the position in East Britain generally.The beginnings of the Anglesey scheme trace back to the Local Government Act, 1929, which empowered County Councils and Rural District Councils to contribute towards the cost of water schemes, and the Rural Water Supplies Act, 1934, under which a sum of £ 1,000,000 was provided for grants towards rural water supply schemes. This led in Anglesey to the setting up in 1934 of a Joint Committee representative of the County and Rural District Councils, to which separate schemes were submitted by the rural authorities, but eventually agreement was reached for their co‐ordination into one large scheme for the whole county.Little progress was made, however, until in 1940 matters came to a head with the arrival of thousands of evacuees, troops and munition workers, most of whom were from urban areas and quite unused to water shortages. Government intervention and the pressure of events then soon led to the preparation of a comprehensive scheme, the central feature of which was to be an impounding reservoir to hold 400 million gallons on the Afon Cefni, in the centre of the island. This scheme was adopted and the required powers obtained for carrying out and financing the necessary works in the Anglesey County Council (Water, etc.) Act, 1944.In the concluding part of his address the speaker gave particulars of the nature and cost of the supply and distribution works now completed which form a very substantial portion of the whole scheme.For many members of the Conference, added interest was given to the address by a visit to the Cefni Waterworks in the afternoon in the course of a motor coach tour of the whole island.