Rabaul Could Dispense

With Its Water Carts

<T|NLY funds are needed now to Vf give Rabaul a reticulated water supply, said District Commis sioner J. k. McCarthy at a Town Advisory Council meeting shortly before he left for Port Moresby.

Wells that have been tested in the Burma Road area are believed to be ample for supplying the town with permanent water.

The nearest running streams to iUbaul are the Warangoi River and : Kerevat River—both at least 20 ' ! ■ sin a direct line from the town.

It has always been agreed that the cost of reticulating water from these sources would be prohibitive.

The alternative is tank water, supplemented, as soon as the dry a son descends upon the area, by water purchased from coastal wells.

As soon as Rabaul has a few weeks without rain the water carting begins. It was so before cue war and the practice continues.

If all the money that has been spent on carting and buying water l n Rabaul in the past 30 years had keen accumulated in one fund, it would have gone a long way towards paying for any reticulated system.

Private individuals and firms have attempted to solve their water dif ficulties in the post-war years by putting down wells and pumps themselves.

There are two schools of thought as to how the water should be pumped from the wells—the pro windmill group, and those in

favour of electrical or mechanical pumps. The balance of opinion seems in favour of pumps; when most needed to pump water Rabaul’s capricious wind which is blocked effectively in most direc tions by the town’s encircling volcanic mountains, fails to turn the windmills.