On The Drain Front… A Brief History of the City’s Sewerage & Drainage System (1700s ~ 1950s)

In the initial years of the city’s growth, the merchants of the East India Company were not much interested in providing improved civic amenities to the citizens. Some of money the Company collected by imposing taxes, duties and licenses in Calcutta between 1690-1723 by virtue of the zamindari rights they had acquired over the villages of Sutanuti, Kolkata and Govindpur in 1698 was put to develop the settlements’ civic structure.

The civic services rendered by the Zamindar mainly consisted of: water supply, drainage, cleansing of streets and street lighting. The development activities undertaken by the Zamindar included: cutting down the jungles in the town, bridging the watercourses, surveying the lands and other such affairs. The provision of ‘civic amenities’ in the city was brought under the Municipal Administration in 1727.

Calcutta had its natural drainage through the Khal (creek) that originated from the Salt Lakes in the east and joined the Hooghly River just below the Prinsep Ghat, after meandering through Beliaghata, Sealdah, Creek Row, Dharamtollah and Government Place North. The great cyclone of 1737 rendered this creek useless as a watercourse for navigation.

Small surface drains had existed in the city since 1695 when a trench was dug round the Sutanuti factory. A deeper trench was constructed in 1710 to separate the British settlement from the indigenous settlement and keep the former dry and wholesome. The ditch ran from Lalbazaar probably to Baboo Ghat. It was protected with drawbridges and a guardhouse — as it basically served the defense rather than drainage purposes.

In 1742 the Maratha Ditch was constructed initially from Baghbazar to Park Street and then extended to Alipore.  This was mainly for the defense against the Maratha raids but it served also as the grand drainage outlet for the whole city until 1801 when it was filled up.

But the state of affairs changed for the better on June 16, 1803. In a meeting of the “Town Improvement Committee” chaired by Lord Wellesley, the then Governor General of Bengal, a historic initiative was undertaken.

It was at Wellesley’s behest that the “Town Reforms Committee” was formed for improvement of the town. Since the construction of the public drains and watercourses of the Town was extremely defective, he assigned great importance to the improvements of its drainage.

This led to the appointment of a Committee in 1804 to look into the matter. This Improvement Committee, later called the Lottery Committee, undertook extensive development work for Calcutta by constructing roads and filling up filthy tanks in the town and excavating new ones. Beliaghata Canal was the Lottery Committee’s permanent contribution to the city’s drainage system.

It is reported that during the early nineteenth century, the drains in the northern part of the town were unpaved and filthy. Coolies were employed regularly to clean these drains manually that would overflow on to the streets after a light rainfall as these drains had no outlet.

As a result, various proposals came up between 1835-1855 for the construction of a new drainage system in the ‘Town’:

•      The Committee opted for an underground drainage system

•      Captain Prinsep of the Bengal Engineers preferred a surface drainage system to carry off the water with sinks and ash-pits for every house, to be cleansed by manually. He strongly opposed to any scheme of underground drainage in Calcutta

•      Mr Blechynden, proposed to drain the northern portion of the town, in which no large drains had yet been made, either towards the river or to the east by a large underground tunnel running from the Hooghly down Nimtala and Manicktollah streets to the Circular Canal. The tunnel was to be flushed by the admission of the Hooghly water

•     Captain Thomson provided for an elaborate system of large underground drains or sewers that he proposed to flush partly by river water and partly by means of a reservoir to be formed at the western end of the Entally Canal

•      Captain E Forbes proposed to construct a large masonry aqueduct from the river Hooghly at old Chitpur Bridge to the Old Park Street cemetery and link it with the Salt Lakes by a wide-open canal nearly parallel with Entally canal. The canal was to be connected by sluice gates with the river and lake, so that water might be admitted or excluded from both these sources. On either side of the canal masonry sewer or covered drain was to be constructed and linked with a system of subsidiary drains discharging into these two main sewers all the filth and surface drainage of the city

•      William Clark proposed a “water-carriage system” for the town. The original report was submitted to the Municipal Commissioners in 1855, and adopted in 1857 with some modifications and was sanctioned in 1859. Clark’s scheme was a ‘combined sewage-cum drainage system’. It carried off both rainfall and sewage from the Hooghly to the Salt Lakes from where the sewage was to be pumped out. The total town area that was covered under Clark’s Scheme amounted to 4730 acres

Clark’s Scheme comprised of five main sewers with their branches, accessories and outfall works. Three of the main sewers stretched from the Hooghly to the Circular Road along the Nimtala Ghat Street, Colootola Stree and Dharamtollah Street. There were two main intercepting sewers:

•      One from the north, starting from Hooghly at Sova Bazaar Street running eastward to Circular Road and continuing along Upper Circular Road to a level at Dharamtollah junction. It intercepted the three main sewers already mentioned. Between this Circular Road sewer and the Circular Road canal, he provided four storm-water overflows of much larger capacity than the sewers 

•   The other intercepting sewer started from Tolly’s Nullah near Zeerut Bridge, and following Lower Circular Road to Dharamtollah junction. It discharged together with the sewer from the north and the Dharamtollah sewer through a main outfall to Palmer’s Bridge Pumping station in Entally, and thence into the Beliaghata Canal

to be continued 

Quenching Kolkata’s Thirst… A Brief History of the City’s Water Supply System (1700s ~ 1950s): Part 1

An adequate supply of pure water, along with an efficient drainage and sewerage system, is most essential to ensure good health of a population. Although the consumption of water depends upon climatic conditions, standard of living and habits of the people, a daily supply of 150 to 200 litres (34~40 gallons) per head is considered an adequate allowance.

Supply of Filtered Water to The City

In its early years, Kolkata, or, the then Calcutta had its water supply from open tanks, wells and the river Hooghly. The staunch Hindus used nothing but Ganga waters from the Hooghly River. A certain Baboo Baishnacharan Sheth of Burra Bazaar made a fortune by supplying the holy water to far off places. Wealthy Hindus got their supplies either from Hooghly Town or from Khulna for the apparently purer flow there. The water would be filtered through sand and charcoal, after immersing a red-hot iron rod into it and stored in Pegu jars for as long as a year. The river water was fit for drinking only from October to March. From April till the onset of the monsoons, it was saline. The water when turbid was clarified by alum and strained through cloth. Some people collected rainwater and used it when the river water became turbid during the rainy season.

            In the native part of the city, numerous private wells supplied water to the poorer people, living away from the river. These privately owned tanks were foul smelling and unsanitary, and the water too polluted for human consumption. The Europeans often used stored rainwater. The Great Tank at Dalhousie Square (now BBD Bag), popularly known as Lal Dighi, was enlarged and deepened in 1709 to ensure a good supply of sweet water to the garrison at Old Fort William and for the British in Calcutta. Many private tanks were also excavated but subsequently decayed due to absolute neglect.

            Not much initiative was taken by the European authorities to improve the civic amenities of the city even after it became the capital of British India in 1773. In fact, it was only in the early nineteenth century that things began to improve.

            At a meeting of the “Town Improvement Committee” held on June 16, 1803 Lord Wellesley admitted: “It is a primary duty of the government to provide for health, safety and convenience of the inhabitants of this great town by establishing a comprehensive system for the roads, streets, paths, drains and water by fixing permanent rules for the construction and distribution of the houses and public edifices and for the regulation of nuisance of every description”. It was during his regime that the “Town Reforms Committee” was formed for improvement of the town. Since the construction of the public drains and watercourses of the Town was extremely defective, he assigned great importance to the improvements of its drainage and water supply systems.

            This led to the appointment of a Committee in 1804 to look into the matter. This “Improvement Committee”, later called the “Lottery Committee”, undertook extensive development work for the city.

            The Lottery Committee excavated a number of tanks between 1808 and 1837, chiefly along the arterial road from Lower Circular Road to Shyambazar at Cornwallis Square, College Square, Wellington Square, Mirzapur, Soorti Bagan, along with several tanks in Shorts Bazaar.

The ‘native town’ too had a number of private tanks, sometimes open to the public. By 1847, the total number of tanks within the Maratha Ditch was 1,043. It appears from the Administrative Report of the Calcutta Municipality for 1,877 that there were within the boundaries of the city some 800 tanks covering an area of 146 acres. In the suburbs, Bhowanipore alone had 823 tanks in 1888.

However, with the growth of population, the existing system was found inadequate, and by 1820, a small pumping plant was set up at Chandpal Ghat for lifting river water into open masonry aqueducts that distributed the water by gravitation over a small portion of the town comprising Old Court House Street, Dharamtola, Chowringhee, Park street, part of Chitpore Road, Lal Bazaar, Bow bazaar, etc; The aqueducts were filled with water pumped from the river Hooghly by a small pumping station at Chandpal Ghat and settled into a settling tank from where the water flowed into the aqueducts by gravity. Water could be taken from the aqueducts by buckets and the supply was also used for street watering and replenishing the public tanks.

The authorities for the first time recognised the need for pure and wholesome water in 1848 and passed the legislation Act II.  The Commissioners subsequently spent large sums for repairing the public tanks. In 1854, the system of aqueducts was extended to Wellington Street, Wellesley Place and College Street. The cost was borne by the Government and the public.

Clark recommended the use of cast-iron pipes laid underground, through which water could be forced from Chandpal Ghat. The Commissioners, however, on the grounds of expense and delay in obtaining materials from England, did not favour the innovation.

Between December 1861 and January 1863 an elaborate analysis of the Hooghly water was carried out by collecting samples from the centre of the stream at 6 feet below the surface at three stations, namely from opposite Cossipore, Palta Ghat and Chinsura.

It was observed that the Cossipore water was tainted by sewage, and the plan of placing the intake pipes at this point, courtesy low cost, was abandoned. The analyst reported that water drawn either at Palta or Chinsura was comparatively pure, and after settling and filtration would give a pure and wholesome supply. Clark’s original scheme provided for a daily supply of 3 to 4.5 million gallons of water.

In 1865 Clark submitted a full report on the Palta scheme that was approved in its entirety by the Water Supply and Finance Committees of the Corporation, who recommended that the works should be carried out by contract under the supervision of the Justices, instead of the supply being placed under the control of a water company.

The first water works for the supply of filtered water to the City was built at Palta (about 30 kms north of the City Centre situated between Barrackpore and Naihati) and took three years (1867-1870) for its construction. It was designed for supplying 6 million gallons (27.28 million litres) of treated water every day to a population of 4 lakhs, thus giving a per capita supply of 15 gallons (68litres) per day.

In order to obtain the full advantage of the waterworks and to avoid the depreciation that iron pipes were expected to undergo owing to the salinity of the soil, Clark was in favour of conveying the water from Palta by a brick aqueduct instead of through iron pipes, but his views were subsequently modified. 

Two pumping stations were built — one at Tallah and the other at Wellington Square — along with two underground reservoirs with capacities of 1 million gallons (4.546 million litres), and 6.25 million gallons (28.41 million litres) respectively. The filtered water from Palta to Tallah was conveyed by gravity through a 42 inches (1067 mm) diameter cast-iron main laid at a gradient of 1 inch. Water used to be pumped from Tallah under pressure partly to the consumers direct and partly into the underground reservoir at Wellington Square from where again water used to be pumped to the consumers.

The daily consumption of water was 4.5 million gallons (20.5 million litres) by 1870, and all the principal streets and lanes (385 in number) were piped, to a total length of piping aggregating 111.75 miles (179 kms). Over 500 stand posts were erected in the streets and made accessible to the public. 

It was soon found that the working of the filters was unsatisfactory during the rainy season. In 1871 thus, engineers proposed to increase the number of filters and to make other extensive works. With the increasing demand for filtered water the problem of water wastage began to assume great importance.  As a measure of economy, the extension of the unfiltered water supply was extended for street watering, fire prevention and trade.    Gradually, an additional engine was installed at Tallah, the pumping plant at Chandpal Ghat was strengthened, and unfiltered water supply was further extended.  The supply of filtered water, however, did not exceed 7 million gallons daily. It soon became evident that the works should be enlarged.

to be continued