Shelter and Water in Kowloon Walled City

CYNTHIA ENG

NOV. 21st, 2010

City of Darkness gives an inside look into the lives of many individuals who lived in Kowloon Walled City just a few years before the City was torn down. The essay, The Water Supply, provides useful information about the City’s struggle to meet its most indispensible need for drinking water, given that the Chinese government had long since refused to provide the City with access to the external water mains systems, with the exception to a few recognized charities (p.36). Residents resorted to several different sources of water.

Standpipes 

          The government did allow access to fresh drinking water through 8 standpipes around the perimeter of the City. However, only one of these standpipes was located inside the City. Being so few in number and inconveniently placed mostly outside the City, these standpipes failed to meet the water needs of the City’s 35,000 residents. “Residents were paying $12-15 a month for labourers to carry six kerosene cans of water each day from the stand-pipes to their flats … Business of carrying water for entire households became increasingly difficult the more the City grew skywards” (p. 36). Nevertheless, this service thrived until the end. 

Wells

Another source of water was from 70+ wells that were sunk around the city and reached depths of some 300 feet. Recent drilling had to reach 100 m deep because shallow water sources had been depleted and/or contaminated over time. New well drillers were usually property owners who drilled on their own land (p.37). What equipment and resources are required to dig a well this deep?

Residents and businesses paid suppliers to pump water from the wells to their flats. “Electric pumps shot water up to great tanks on the roof-tops, from where it descended via an ad hoc forest of narrow pipes to the homes of subscribers” (p. 10). The City’s alleyways were dark, damp, and sometimes even difficult to stand straight up in. Alley roofs were covered with a chaotic jumble of plastic water pipes, many of which dripped.

Because of water pressure and pumping difficulties, the electric pumps were only turned on to replenish tanks at set times, usually noon and midnight. This meant that residents still had to store water in bathtubs and buckets. Also water from the wells was mostly undrinkable (not even fit to boil), because it was usually contaminated by seepage of urban and industrial pollutants. Therefore, well-water was best used for washing and floor cleaning.

Depending on height and distance from the well, installation of a well-water link could cost as much as a few thousand dollars. By late 1980s, monthly water fees cost between $50-$70 per household. What is this as a percentage of average monthly wages?

Illegal Tapping of Mains

Residents and businesses could also pay the local Triad groups for water tapped illegally from nearby mains system. Illegal tapping of mains water from outside City, monopolized in the beginning by the Triads, remained an important source of drinking water until the end, even after the Triads sold off most of their business interest in the City (p.38).

Sources

Girard, Greg and Ian Lambot. The Water Supply. City of Darkness: Life in Kowloon Walled City. 5^th ed. Watermark Publications (UK) Limited, 2001.