One of the most major improvements to our sanitation systems in Singapore was the total elimination of the "Night soil removal system" in 1987 where the removal of human faeces were manually carried out from house to house using the bucket system.
I could still remember vividly the time when I was a child living in an old shophouse along North Bridge Rd where toilet flushing system did not existed back then. What we had was a toilet with a single black oval bucket provided by the City Council where twenty odd people in the premises would discharge their human faeces into it on a daily basis. You could imagine the stench emanating from it if you were the next in line after someone had done his business. Most of the time, we would smoke a cigarette while doing the business to mask the stench.
On the very next morning, a daily-rated worker would come and remove the soiled bucket and replaced it with a new one. There were several occasions where the night soil carrier inadvertently dislodged the whole bucket full of faeces within our premises and the aftermath of such incidents would invariably cause a lot of indignation towards the poor worker. The worst situation that I encountered was the City Council strike that happened quite occasionally and we would have to carry the bucket to the roadside to exchange for a new bucket from the arriving night soil wagon. During heavy rain, we would sometimes take the opportunity to empty the bucket into the adjoining roadside drain, and that was the greatest joy and relief for us during the City Council workers’ strike.
1966 was a new environment for my family when we resettled into a two-room HDB flat where modern sanitation system was provided. It was a refreshing change as we could do our daily "business" with ease and comfort.
When I joined the Public Health Division, Ministry of Health in 1969 as an Assistant Public Health Inspector, I was surprised that there were still many houses in the rural East like Punggol/ Yio Chu Kang/ Serangoon/Sembawang without proper modern sanitation. In the rural kampongs, we found out that most of the folks would discharge their daily waste into the so-called "overhanging latrines" which are the ponds or fish ponds. These wastes would eventually discharge into our rivers and coastal waters, causing massive pollution. To stop this unhygienic practice, the Environment Ministry back then embarked on a project in Mandai area to coerce all the kampong folks to build the so-called R2 latrines to stop the water pollution of our waterways.
"Night soil collection" in some of the better built houses in these rural areas was contracted out to private contractors. We would receive complaints almost every day from residents about non-collection of night soil buckets by these contractors.
On many occasions, these unscrupulous workers would empty the buckets into the big open drains and we have to mount ambushes to apprehend them and impose liquidated damages against them. These tasks were difficult as it was like a cat and mouse game most of the time.
In those days, one would wonder where the collected wastes were discharged and treated. Those days, we had several centres located in Singapore and notably the one in the heart of the city called Albert St Night Soil Station, Jalan Afifi at Paya Lebar Rd, Lor Halus and Toh Tuck Rd Night Soil station. The night soil buckets were transported by a 32 doors wagon to the station where the buckets were emptied into a big concrete tank, washed and loaded back into the wagon at the same time. The wastes would then be pumped to the various sewerage stations such as in Lorong Chuan, Tiong Bahru Rd and Ulu Pandan for treatment before its final discharge into the sea.
Although I didn't have the opportunity to work in the night soil station, I was fortunate to experience it during our field visits to the station. We were totally in awe as we could see the workers working beside the concrete tank and eating their breakfast at the same time. We really admired their resilient work ethics despite working in such deplorable conditions. We were forewarned not to spit or pinch our nose in the station so as to show respect to them for performing such arduous task in such an inhumane environment. These night soil workers had gained our respect and were etched in my memory till today.
Finally, the bucket system was abolished in January 1987 by the Environment Ministry.
