Pastures Past: Water tank worries in 1877

In 1877, Dr Hector reported on rainwater caught on roofs in Wellington.

Kem Ormond takes a look at the world of farming back in the day.

Clean water is a commodity we sometimes take for granted. But rural people can tell a tale or two.

I remember finding the odd dead possum at the bottom of an old concrete water tank,

I also found a plastic truck, a couple of dead birds and stones of varying shapes and sizes, due to the boredom of a couple of boys I know.

While Dr. Hector’s 1877 report focused on Wellington’s water supply, the same concerns applied to rural households relying on rooftop tanks — often without covers — and storing water in barrels or iron drums.

Yet, that was life. Water was precious, and you made do with what you had.

A few floaters in the tank weren’t enough to turn people off.

Today, we might recoil at the thought, but back then, it was just another day on the farm.

Rain water for human consumption

Taranaki Herald, December 18, 1877

Dr. Hector, in reporting on the water supply for Wellington, writes regarding rain water caught on galvanised iron or shingle roofs, and preserved in plain or zinc-coated iron tanks, or in wooden barrels:— “None of these can ever afford absolutely pure water, as even rain water, when freshly fallen, contains a minute quantity of foreign matters dissolved in it, and these are largely added to by the absorption of the impurities that settle on the roofs, or find their way accidentally into the tanks.

“It requires to be noted that when the rain water is caught on zinc or corrugated iron roofs, or collected and allowed to stand in tanks of these materials, there is always found, besides the substances above enumerated, a minute but variable quantity of zinc.

“When the collecting tank is zinc or zinc iron, the proportion of zinc to the gallon of water will necessarily vary very much, and when such tanks have been low with zinc as to acquire very active medicinal properties, which are in the first instance tonic, but with after effects that are injurious to the nervous system.

“In rain water collected in tanks, however, the organic matter is very uncertain in its origin, for there is no conceivable substance — animal or vegetable — which may not, after a long continuance of dry weather, be raised as dust and lodged on the house tops.

“The results obtained disclose this fully, and show that no water collected within the crowded parts of the city, either from well or house-tops, is safe or proper for human consumption.

“There is one branch of the subject which is beyond the province of chemistry, but which is even more important than any of the foregoing, that is the misery and suffering entailed, especially on the children, in a city that is badly supplied with water, from the prevalence of intestinal worms.

“The connection between a defective water supply, and the prevalence of this disease, may not be established as cause and effect, but their constant association is undoubted, and there are no means found to be so effectual in Wellington as an ample supply of wholesome water.”

Water from the roof

Quite good to drink

Northern Advocate, February 4, 1932

Quite a number of people in New Zealand are forced to depend upon tanks for their domestic water supply.

It has been asked in some quarters whether such water is liable to become impregnated with lead or zinc from the roof and thereby become dangerous to drink.

The Health Department, however, is reassuring on the matter, pointing out that for generations past such water has been drunk without any recorded ill-effects.

Tank water might possibly contain lead or zinc in small quantities, but they would be very small quantities, and the human body can tolerate these substances up to a point.

“The Lancet” states that water containing one-twentieth of a grain of lead, one-fifteenth of a grain of copper, or one-quarter of a grain of iron per gallon can be drunk with entire impunity.

Zinc is found in many drinking waters, and this water can be drunk without any harmful results.

Complaints about water from tanks, it was pointed out, usually showed when investigated that the tanks needed cleaning.

The water going into the tanks was all right, but that coming out was not so good.

There need be no fear, however, about drinking rain water collected from the roof, provided the tanks were kept clean.

- Source: Papers Past