Therefore, last year, in 1950, the Hong Kong Colonial Government's Water Supplies Department had no choice but to install an independent seawater (saltwater) pipeline to meet the needs of residents in Hong Kong Island residential areas for flushing toilets, in order to avoid wasting freshwater resources, and to collect saltwater charges to subsidize freshwater expenses. In addition, this year there has been very little rainfall and insufficient water storage in reservoirs, so the daily freshwater supply restriction time has been reduced from twelve hours last year to nine hours.
It's not that a 12-hour daily water supply meant everyone could freely turn on their taps and enjoy a torrent of running water. In 1950, Hong Kong's water pressure was extremely low. Considering the four-story Cantonese-style arcade house where Song Tianyao's family lived, the first floor had the highest water flow. If all the residents of Hong Kong turned on their taps at the same time, it would take about ten minutes to fill a bucket. On the second floor, under the same conditions, it would take about half an hour or even more than an hour to fill a bucket. On the third floor, it would take four or five hours or even longer. As for the fourth floor, it was like raindrops dripping from the eaves; getting any water at all was considered lucky. If someone was unlucky enough to rent a tenement building on the fifth or sixth floor, they would have to carry a bucket downstairs every day to beg the first-floor residents for water, as their own taps would be completely dry.
So almost every morning after the water supply begins, you can hear residents in high-rise Hong Kong Island shouting to those on the first and second floors, "Turn off the water taps downstairs!"
Even the fights between fourth- and fifth-floor residents and first- and second-floor residents over water storage are reported in the news more than a dozen times a year.
Because the taps on the first and second floors are left running, even if the residents on the fourth and fifth floors turn the taps to the maximum, it is unlikely that they can fill half a bucket with water in nine hours.
Therefore, even residents living in tenement buildings on Hong Kong Island were already experiencing daily water rations, so one can only imagine the situation in the slums throughout Kowloon. The Hong Kong Colonial Government had no time to care about these impoverished people. Residents of the Squatter Area could only try to raise funds to commission someone to find a site to drill a barely usable freshwater well, or gather dozens of people to risk their lives to secretly transport water from the Kowloon Reservoir, which was guarded by armed police officers and British Army.
"Firefighters" was actually a term used to refer to firefighters. After fires of varying sizes frequently broke out in several Squatter Areas in Kowloon, the Hong Kong Colonial Government purchased several fire trucks for firefighting. This gave these firefighters an opportunity to make money. Every day, they would fill the trucks with water from the reservoir and drive them to the vicinity of the Squatter Areas to sell water. In Kowloon, a bucket of water from the reservoir, which had not been filtered or settled, was priced at one to two cents by the firefighters. When water supply was severely restricted, the price even reached five cents per bucket.
In the Kowloon Squatter Area, it's common for a bucket of water, after deducting the water used for cooking and drinking, to be used for the whole family's washing, laundry, cleaning household items, and finally rinsing the bucket, regardless of how many people are in the family.
From the 1920s to 1951 in Hong Kong, almost all ordinary China person had to struggle to get a bucket of water that was far from clean. Only the Britain and wealthy Chinese businessmen were exceptions, because the few sweet springs in Hong Kong were already exclusively enjoyed by them.
This is why Song Tianyao started with deworming medication. Up to 95% or more of the population in Hong Kong drinks rainwater that has only been purified and settled using simple alum and chemical agents. There are three filtration stations on Hong Kong Island, but only one has deep filtration capabilities. However, this station only provides purified spring water to the Britain and wealthy, operating completely independently from the public water supply system. The other two filtration stations are simply unable to purify the daily water supply for Hong Kong Island residents. In emergencies, alum is often hastily added before purification is complete, and the water is immediately piped into homes. The level of purification in such water is therefore questionable.
As for the Kowloon area, there is only one filtration station that provides purification and sedimentation for the Kowloon Reservoir. However, the Kowloon Reservoir is a backup reservoir, not a daily water supply reservoir. The filtration station is always out of operation except in emergency situations. Therefore, the water quality that most people in the Kowloon area drink is just as dirty as rainwater.
In this environment, Song Tianyao told Mrs. Bess that 80% of people in Hong Kong suffer from parasitic diseases due to drinking untreated or unclean water, which is no exaggeration.
When children get tired from playing in the street, they will drink raw water directly when they get home. When the laborers at the docks catch their breath, they will also gulp down a mouthful of raw water. Even for factory workers, the factory owners cannot prepare boiled water for them to drink slowly. Providing enough raw water for them to drink is already considered having a conscience.
"What's the difference? Just put some alum in, isn't it the same? You've been drinking this kind of water since you were a child, and you've never gotten sick. Even if you have worms in your stomach, they'll come out sooner or later, you'll be fine." Zhao Meizhen put down the large steamer she was carrying and said to Song Tianyao with dissatisfaction, "Mind your own business. Don't forget your roots after just a few days as a secretary, or forget the hardships you endured over the years after a few days of comfortable living."
"You'll only have more in your stomach after you expel one. Don't believe me?" Song Tianyao took out his wallet, counted out eighty or ninety dollars in small bills, and handed them to Zhao Meizhen with a stern face. He said, word by word, "Go to the nearest pharmacy and tell them you want to buy United States- made 'Santonin' deworming medicine. It's fifty-seven Hong Kong dollars a bottle, the cheapest kind. After you buy it, you, my Dad, and Wenwen should each take one pill. You'll know how many worms are in your stomach when you go to the toilet. If I'm wrong, I'll buy you 'fire worm water' every morning from now on, as many as you can get, okay? Remember, one pill each. Taking too many is harmful to your health."
After her son's face darkened, Zhao Meizhen didn't dare to use her mother's position to argue. She muttered a few words about how becoming a secretary made him dare to talk back to his parents, then looked at the loose change in her hand and finally said, "I'll trust you this once. I'll have your Dad buy it later. Fifty-seven yuan a bottle! That's enough to buy more than ten doses of traditional Chinese medicine at the pharmacy! It's cheaper to take Ganji Powder worms, less than one yuan a dose... Fine, I'll listen to you. If it doesn't work, let's see what you say then."
"And remember to buy me some Western medicine for colds and flu while you're at it." Song Tianyao sniffed, feeling a bit uncomfortable, and turned to walk downstairs.