Reflections on a Long and Blessed Life No. 56: Hong Kong Water Crisis

“Water, water everywhere and not a drop to drink.” When in high school I memorised those words from “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner”, I never imagined that one day they would apply to me. Yet they did, in Hong Kong, especially in 1963-64. Hong Kong is surrounded by the South China Sea. But its very small land mass has no river and deeper wells are extremely difficult to dig because of a tough very thick layer of bedrock. So when the British Colony was over-run by refugees from China and its population suddenly soared into the millions there simply was not enough water even for drinking purposes.

So Hong Kong had to negotiate with the Chinese central government to get access to water from across the border. To the credit of that government they went out of their way to make water available to the people of Hong Kong. But still there was not nearly enough to meet the demand.

Severe water restrictions were put into place. The authorities simply cut off all water supplies to homes, schools, restaurants etc. At its worst we would get water only every fourth day and then for only four hours. This placed an incredible burden on many, especially the hundreds of thousands who had no running water in their small tenement rooms or next to their hillside huts. So they would line up for hours at the few available public water faucets. Already early in the morning on days when there would be some water one could see long lines of people of all ages. Each one had two five gallon buckets. They would be attached to poles, which stretched across the back of persons, often even a young teen-ager or child.

The Chinese were incredible in making do. For example: we, of course, had strict school rules about the students needing to wear clean school uniforms. And some of the poor had only one set. So they needed to wash their uniform in the evening, let it dry over night and wear it again the next day. Yet, even though my schools had thousands of student s and our rules were pretty strict not one single time did I as principal have to send a student home because his/her school uniform was too dirty or spotty.

Our family was very privileged. We lived in a situation where we had a small concert reservoir on our roof. On water days we could collect a little extra water there. And we used it very sparingly. For example we would let some water come into our bathtub during that available 4-hour period every fourth day. We would dip it into small basins to wash the 7 of us and then carefully take it from the tub to flush our toilets, which, of course had been unflushed for way too long. On “water days” Jane would fill the washing machine with a hose connected to the roof reservoirs, catching the used water in buckets and pouring it back into the washing machine for the next load.

Even though the authorities claimed the water was safe to drink no one believed that and everybody boiled all their drinking water. We would never consider brushing our teeth with water from the faucet. It had to be boiled. For years after we left Hong Kong I still had difficulty allowing myself to use water directly from the faucet to brush my teeth.

One of the persons who was most amazing in managing water was our “tea woman” at Concordia Lutheran School. We were a large school with a staff of some 50 persons-and she always had hot tea available for us, delivered to the teachers’ (and my) desk twice a day! I still don’t know how she managed that.

There were some things one never saw during this time of water shortage. I never once saw a green lawn. Water at a restaurant table was more expensive than beer. There were NO public water drinking fountains, not even at our schools. I cannot recall that water in a small plastic bottle was ever available for purchase. Yet we survived. More water and channels to move it were made available from the mainland. Hong Kong itself did dig some wells and even tried to dam up some water during the heavy rainy season. Now when I go to Hong Kong I feel free to take a shower, I can putt on green grass at the Hong Kong Golf Club, I can flush the toilet after every use! But I just stick to my old ways and have a San Miguel beer in place of water when I have dinner