Operation and maintenance of sewers and watermains in England and Wales

Abstract

In 1975 the Transport and Road Research Laboratory of the Departments of Transport and the Environment commissioned a ‘State of the Art Survey of the sewers and watermains in England and Wales. This thesis derives from part of the research carried out for the Survey. The thesis covers historical aspects of these public health systems, from administration and local government through the evolution of design methods to the far-reaching local government and water industry re-organisation of the early 1970's. The investigation methods included searches of national and Institution libraries and detailed studies of local and water authority practices. Local authority records were generally informative, particularly of the Victorian period. The thesis is broadly divided into three sections: engineering information, management information and data processing. The engineering aspects of sewers and watermains indicate that little real change in the basic principles has occurred in the past 75 years or so. New 'tools' have been developed but the same basic formulae are still in everyday use. The structural design of sewers has been an important development, however. The re-organisations have rationalised public health administration, leading to some local friction between local and regional authorities. Significant improvements in day-to-day operations have not occurred. The large volume of data gathered necessitated computer analysis. Local authorities with similar public health-related characteristics were grouped by ‘cluster analysis'. The analysis was broadly successful but requires refining before its full potential as a regional or national planning tool, for public health administration can be realised.