A family's water problems

Chua Theam Kok and his family have lived in a rented house made of wooden boards for the past 10 years or so. The house is small and in dire need of repairs, but it is all that they can afford.

They have no car, so Yap Su Chong cycles to town to buy the family's necessities.

Behind the house is a small vegetable patch where they get their meagre supply of fresh greens.

Their water comes from an old well at the side of the house. There is no clean water supply – this water can only be used for the laundry and bathing.

Chua used to do carpentry work, earning about RM2,000 a month. However, he has been mostly housebound since meeting with an accident some years ago.

The roof is full of holes, and whenever it rains, water comes pouring through the leaks.

Chua's son, Chi Wa, sits under the old fuse box. When it rains, none of them dares to touch any of the switches in the house except with a wooden ruler to avoid getting electrocuted.

Every morning, Su Chong collects clean water in buckets from her neighbour's house. She repays the favour by helping with the neighbour's laundry.

The clean water she collects is used for cooking and drinking.

Buckets and containers of water line the walls of the small dark kitchen.

There are no tiles in the house, only cracked cement floors.

Su Chong sits down for a well-deserved drink after carrying the buckets of water back from her neighbour's house.